GOP lawmakers are incensed President Barack Obama is underplaying the threat poised by the Ebola virus' spread to the United States – and at the inadequate national response.
"I am concerned about it, and it’s a big mistake to downplay it and act as if it’s not a big deal," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told conservative
radio host Laura Ingraham, accusing Obama administration officials of putting "political correctness" ahead of public health.
Paul and other Republicans are blasting the White House’s refusal to put limits on air travel, a step taken by carriers elsewhere, such as British Airways and Kenya Airways, which have canceled many flights to Africa,
The Hill reports.
"Recent events highlight the need for elevated levels of screening at U.S. ports of entry," Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said in a statement Thursday. "The time for action has come and gone and the CDC has yet to answer why they are resisting this next commonsense step that is long overdue."
And Texas Republican Rep. Michael Burgess told The Hill the Obama administration could have prevented Ebola from reaching America if State Department officials had been more vigilant – and says the administration now needs to "better control" people traveling to the United States from areas where Ebola is epidemic.
"My only question is, where was our State Department? Why weren’t they as involved in this as the Liberian government?" Burgess asked.
The CDC maintains Ebola will be quickly contained and that a wider outbreak is extremely unlikely, a message that has been voiced repeatedly by the White House, The Hill notes.
But Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran said the government is not in control of the situation.
"I don’t think there is a person in charge, Moran, the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee’s health subcommittee,
told BuzzFeed.
"And I don’t think there is a plan internationally to bring the folks together to combat this."
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