Florida is facing a growing Zika threat as mosquitos in the Miami area are now believed to be spreading the virus. But Patrick Murphy is standing in the way of a solution, instead choosing to play politics with a public health crisis by following the party line instead of taking action.
A week after the do-nothing Congressman declared, “the need for immediate action could not be more clear,” Murphy voted with Democrats to stop legislation creating new federal guidelines that would have made it easier to fight disease-carrying mosquitos.
Murphy’s partisan games are straight out of the Democrats’ playbook. The Wall Street Journal notes that Senate Democrats are creating ‘chaos they believe will work to their political benefit’ by blocking a bipartisan funding measure:
The White House asked Congress for $1.9 billion by July 4 to address mosquito-borne Zika, which can cause a birth defect called microcephaly. A bipartisan compromise stripped out spending unrelated to Zika but otherwise granted the $1.1 billion request in full for prevention, research, education, health services, international aid and vaccine development.
The measure passed the Senate 89-8 in May, with 44 Democrats in favor and none opposed. But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid emerged on Tuesday to ambush the House-Senate conference report compromise, which the House has already passed and can’t be amended.
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Inventing pretexts that happen to overlap with their campaign themes, Democrats blocked the Zika money, 52-48.
Murphy’s message is clear: Floridians are on their own. By using Zika as a political football rather than tackling the crisis, Murphy is part of the problem in Washington – a problem that Florida families can’t afford.