I wouldn’t be bringing this up except that the left is attempting to place blame on the GOP for opposing funding that would go to preparing for a flu pandemic. The Nation, which would blame the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Bush if it could get away with it, writes:

When House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose in this year’s emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans.

Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse — with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy.

But former White House political czar Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans — led by Maine Senator Susan Collins — aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery.

Now, as the World Health Organization says a deadly swine flu outbreak that apparently began in Mexico but has spread to the United States has the potential to develop into a pandemic, Obey’s attempt to secure the money seems eerily prescient.

And his partisan attacks on his efforts seem not just creepy, but dangerous.

Got it? It’s now our fault because Republicans opposed massive spending for flu pandemic preparation in an emergency fiscal stimulus bill. Unfortunately for the left, Republicans aren’t the only ones on record as having opposed the funding. Powerful Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said this at the time:

“All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the flu pandemic, they’re all out,” Schumer said.

So Schumer also believed that the funding was improperly place in the porkulus by the House? Huh. And yet you can almost guarantee that the narrative blaming it all on the GOP will be considered accepted fact by the time the nightly news airs this evening.