While Dems Lie About Trump’s CDC Budget, Turns Out Obama Requested Millions in Cuts

It’s never a matter of if another pandemic will happen, it’s just a matter of when — and it’s the president’s job to ensure we’re ready.

Donald Trump's careless, shortsighted actions left our nation ill-prepared and now Americans are paying the price. https://t.co/45GVHtxUHA

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 27, 2020

He wasn’t the only one. As FactCheck.org noted, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg claimed during the Feb. 25 debate that Trump “has defunded — he had defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC, so we don’t have the organization we need.”

In the same debate, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that Trump had “tried to cut back on the CDC.”

Two days later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that “[t]he Trump budget calls for slashing almost $700 million from the Centers for Disease Control. And this was the budget which came out after we knew about the coronavirus threat.”

Now, Klobuchar and Pelosi’s claims were a bit more fact-based than Biden and Bloomberg’s. But they’re still misleading.

Trump did not, in fact, successfully cut the CDC’s budget. And while he did request budget cuts, it turns out former President Barack Obama did the exact same thing.

So, a bit of background: Every year, the president submits a budget proposal to Congress. This budget proposal is essentially a wish list.

Even if his party controls Congress — which is where the budget originates from — there’s nothing that says Congress needs to pay attention to it.

Realistically, of course, the budget could serve as a guide for lawmakers when it comes to what the White House’s priorities are. At least this year, however, it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case.

Here’s what Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, had to say about the president’s 2021 budget proposal: “Congress doesn’t pay any attention to the president’s budget exercise.” He’s not even giving it a hearing.

Yes, the administration has proposed cuts to the CDC. Congress has rejected them.

According to FactCheck.org, in the 2020 fiscal year budget, Trump proposed a $750.6 million cut in CDC funding; Congress approved a budget that increased it by $420 million. Trump signed it.

But, there still remains the fact Trump asked for a cut in CDC funding. That looks bad — until you consider Obama did it in five out of his eight budget proposals.

“In its fiscal year 2013 budget, while Biden was vice president, the Obama administration sought a total funding level of $5.9 billion from the CDC, or a $569 million cut from the 2012 budget of $6.46 billion. In fiscal year 2015, the Obama administration wanted a $414 million cut year-over-year, and again in the fiscal year 2017 budget, the Obama administration looked to eliminate $251 million in CDC funding,” Fox News reported Saturday.