Scott Powers
Declaring that the Zika virus “threatens the entire family, the entire community, and the entire state of Florida,” U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson blasted Republicans Thursday, saying their anti-Zika plan is “Don’t get bit.”
It echoes his most infamous partisan statement in a long history of such, when he declared on the floor of Congress in 2009 the GOP health care plan was “Don’t get sick.” Grayson is trying it again, in a video statement released by his U.S. Senate election campaign Thursday.
Grayson, a Democrat from Orlando, is running for the U.S. Senate and is in a tough primary fight with U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of Jupiter, as well as with Palm Beach Gardens attorney Pam Keith. All three have called for immediate and full funding to combat the Zika virus.
“The GOP’s plan for mosquito-born Zika amounts to this: ‘Don’t get bit,'” he said.
The House of Representatives is debating funding to fight the Zika virus, which is ravaging much of South and Central America and the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, while Florida waits to be next. President Barack Obama sought $1.9 billion in funding. Earlier this week the U.S. Senate approved a $1.1 billion plan. The House is debating plans in the neighborhood of $600 million.
“The Republicans want to provide less than one-third of the funds that President Barack Obama says we need to stop this modern-day plague,” Grayson said. “The President is asking for just six dollars from every American and the stubborn GOP won’t even give him that, condemning us to the threat of the disease and, for some, death.”
In Grayson’s statement, he took issue with a Republican colleague’s statement that the virus only seriously impacts fetuses of pregnant women who are bit. However, he refused to identify the member who said it.
“But this isn’t just about microcephaly (tiny brains) in babies born to women who contract the Zika virus while pregnant,” Grayson said. “For others, Zika can be life-threatening. If you have a compromised immune system, if you are otherwise ill or are elderly, Zika can be fatal. America’s first Zika-related death was a 70-year-old man in Puerto Rico, according to the CDC.
“Zika threatens the entire family, the entire community, and the entire state of Florida,” he said.
“There is still time to avert this tragedy. But we have to act right now,” he concluded in the statement. “I’m Congressman Alan Grayson and I’m calling upon Democrats and Republicans alike — the House, the Senate and the President, to do exactly that.”
