Despite what lefty (and some righty) caricatures would have you believe, libertarians like myself agree that government does have some basic competencies and vital functions. One of those is its ability to summon vast recourses, material and human, in time of crisis.
That’s why I haven’t written anything until now about the ebola situation. (I almost wrote “ebola pandemic,” but that would be premature, and let’s hope it stays that way.) It was a pretty safe assumption that the CDC and the military would do their thing, would execute their professional competencies, and that we’d get a handle on this thing. Maybe not as soon as we’d prefer, and certainly not before too many decent people died. But in the end, this is the kind of catastrophic event for which we fund and delegate our sovereign powers to the government.
That was before the Hopenchange Era of Obama.
BuzzFeed reports:
America’s Ebola effort lacks a leader, a key senator told BuzzFeed News.
With Ebola cases doubling every 24 days in Liberia and showing no sign of slowing, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran said President Obama needs to appoint an Ebola czar to coordinate the government’s sprawling, multi-agency effort. Moran, the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee’s health subcommittee, said it has been difficult for even lawmakers to find the right person to talk to.
“We’re trying to figure out about the funding,” Moran said. But “there is no person to go to, to tell us how all this is going to be funded,” he said, and “what resources will be needed.”
Asked if he felt it was time for Obama to appoint someone to head up America’s Ebola efforts in Africa, Moran said, “It’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about.”
“I don’t think there is a person in charge,” he added. “And I don’t think there is a plan internationally to bring the folks together to combat this.”
If you’re like me, and sometimes in the wee small hours you feel like the world is flying apart, then it pains me to tell you that it probably is.
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