Rep. Kelly Discusses Obama Administration’s Handling of Ebola Crisis with Neil Cavuto on Fox News
WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Ways and Means Committee – appeared on Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel yesterday afternoon to discuss the Obama administration’s handling of the ongoing Ebola crisis.
Highlights of Rep. Kelly’s comments:
“I think you need to be very worried. Consistent with this administration: they worry more about the message than the mission.”
“When I first heard Dr. [Tom] Frieden … I said, ‘You know what? Sounds pretty good.’ Then I looked into his background: he’s the ‘Soda Pop Doc,’ the New York doc [who worked with Mayor Bloomberg] who’s more concerned about sugary drinks. So they appoint Mr. Ron Klain, and I think, ‘Well, maybe that’s a step in the right direction.’ Then I find out he’s not really a doctor—he’s a spin doctor [for Democrats].”
“We have to have somebody at the head pulling people together with a strategy that’s actually going to work. It’s supposed to be the president. Through his ability, through his office, the executive offices, [he should be] able to direct the country in a way that we have trust and faith and confidence. And I think what we see, time after time, is that it’s a false confidence. We find out it’s not a true message, and then it’s damage control, not disease control. And I think that’s where the American people are losing faith.”
“I’d rather overreact right now. I’d rather err on the caution side and then later on say, ‘Listen, blame me for overreacting, but I wanted to protect the American people.’”
“We [the U.S. government] knew about this outbreak in March and we’ve been sitting on it—not making decisions that would protect the American people. That’s not leadership. That’s not taking the country in a direction where they’re supposed to have faith and confidence. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”
NOTE: On October 7, 2014, Rep. Kelly sent a letter to President Obama urgently requesting information regarding the administration’s handling of the Ebola virus outbreak and details of a comprehensive strategy to stop the virus from affecting Americans. A copy of the letter can be viewed here.
On October 8, 2014, Rep. Kelly co-signed a bipartisan letter to President Obama urging him to take immediate action to prevent an outbreak of the Ebola virus in America by instituting travel restrictions, enhancing airport screenings, and possibly quarantining individuals who have traveled to or from the affected West African countries. The letter can be viewed here.
On October 9, 2014, Rep. Kelly sent a letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Sylvia Burwell, and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tom Frieden, expressing his deep concern about the possibility of the Ebola virus spreading to Pennsylvania. The letter was copied to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, and can be read here.
On October 20, 2014, Rep. Kelly called on President Obama to finalize a rule proposed under the Bush administration in 2005 (Vol. 70, No. 229, 71892) to update and revise regulations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to “prevent the introduction, transmission or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States from one State or possession into another.” According to the federal register, the code of federal regulations that deals with foreign arrivals has not been updated since 1985. According to USA Today, the Obama administration scrapped the proposal in 2010 after objections by the American Civil over “potential passenger privacy rights violations and the proposal's ‘provisional quarantine’ rule.”
###