Contagion and brain damage: GOP House shrugs off Zika

By Vincent Boom Batz, M.D.
Health Correspondent with
David Bloviator in Washington

Americans, used to thinking that the nation's number one public health menace was Charlie Sheen, are now confronting the imminent specter of mosquito-borne Zika viruses spreading into any parts of the nation where mosquitoes can be found.

Fortunately, the House Republican caucus is on the job.  Yesterday it authorized an inadequate amount of money to protect Americans from Zika.  The prospect of widespread birth defects paled in their minds when compared to their overriding priorities: saying no to anything put forward by President Obama, and screwing the poor.

Vermin, parasites threatening public health

Not only is the total amount laughably inadequate but it also must be offset by budget cuts elsewhere, unlike multi-trillion-dollar GOP tax cuts for the rich.  This is known in the Republican caucus as “fiscal responsibility.”

The threat is greatest in hot, swampy, heavily populated areas like east Texas.  So of course local Republicans like human fly Louis Gohmert (R – Crazytown), voted, wait for it, against adequate funding to protect constituents from the grim effects of Zika.  He's still an overwhelming favorite for re-election.

You might that the likelihood of infants born with serious brain damage due to pre-natal Zika exposure would be a matter of some concern to First District voters, but apparently in that part of the fever swamp that is Texas, brain damage isn't a public health crisis, it's a qualification for elective office.