US drops Pakistan from CDC funding

WASHINGTON (AFP): Pakistan would be among a host of countries barred from getting US funding under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted on Sunday.

Greene’s tweet came soon after President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy reached a tentative deal to raise the federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.

The CDC is the national public health agency. The agency’s main goal is the protection of public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and worldwide.

“Hearing @SpeakerMcCarthy’s soon to be finalised agreement on the debt limit will claw back $400 million from the CDC ‘Global Health Fund’ that sends money overseas to countries like China,” Greene tweeted.

“Here’s a few other countries that will no longer get access to these taxpayer dollars: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burma, Cambodia, China, Ivory Coast, DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mail, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe,” she added.

“Also on the chopping block is nearly $1.5 billion from the CDC’s ‘Vaccine Distribution and Monitoring Program’.”

The agreement was announced on Saturday by President Biden and Republican leader McCarthy after weeks of crisis talks offered a path back from the default precipice, but it was far from certain that the compromises it contained could garner the support it required from both sides of the aisle.

After securing the tentative deal to prevent a cataclysmic US debt default, Republican and Democrat leaders began the hard task of winning over sceptics in both their parties in order to shepherd the legislation through Congress before the government runs out of money.

And all the while the clock is still ticking down to the June 5 “X-date” when the Treasury estimates the government will start to run out of cash to pay its bills and debts. A default would likely have catastrophic consequences, triggering a US recession and risking a global economic meltdown.

The basic framework of the deal suspends the federal debt ceiling, which is currently $31.4 trillion, for two years – enough to get past the next presidential election in 2024 and allow the government to keep borrowing money and remain solvent.

In return, the Republicans secured some limits on federal spending over the same period. McCarthy has called for a vote Wednesday in the House where his party’s wafer thin majority means passing the bill will require significant Democrat backing to balance out Republican dissent.