Thursday, August 21, 2014

Paul Ryan Is All Wet!

By Jeff Simpson

If you have not been living under a rock, you have seen someone do the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge"


ALS/ Lou Gehrig's disease is a horrible disease for which there is currently no cure.   This challenge has brought in millions of dollars in funding for research and has really shown the power of the new era of social media.  Last number I have heard is that the "Ice Bucket Challenge" has helped ALS research raise over $31,000,000. 

It also shows us how truly despicable and hypocritical our politicians can be.  Especially Wisconsin's very own Paul Ryan(R-Wall St.).  Paul Ryan, after being "challenged by Scott Walker, recently took the challenge and donated a whopping $100 to ALS



 Paul Ryan even had the gall to "challenge his good  friend who lost her father to ALS".   Unfortunately for Ms. Sellman and the countless others affected by ALS, Paul Ryan did not accept the challenge when it came to doing the right thing with Federal funding.

  Some of the very lawmakers who have taken the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and money for ALS research voted for legislation that defunded ALS research.

The funding cuts, in this case, were caused by the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011 -- otherwise known as the bill to save the United States government from default. As a condition of getting congressional Republicans to sign off on the debt ceiling hike, the Obama White House and Congressional Democrats agreed to budget cuts and future budget cuts that would be delivered via sequestration, an across-the-board cleaver that cut certain agencies' budgets by roughly 5 percent.

The National Institutes of Health was one of those agencies. It was forced to slash an estimated $1.55 billion from its programs. Among those was the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In Fiscal Year 2013, the NINDS budget was $1.53 billion, a $92 million decrease from FY 2012. For ALS-specific research, funding went from $44 million to $39 million.

At least now that pink slip Paulie has personally donated $100, he can sleep at night.  Although I am not sure how he can ever look his "good friend" in the eye.    

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