In Health Care Spending by Lawmakers, the Personal Guides the Political, WSJ Reports
The Wall Street Journal today looks at how Capitol Hill lawmakers use their positions on House and Senate appropriations committees to address issues of personal concern to them and "guide spending." Two of the lawmakers featured in the article have taken up health-care related initiatives. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) -- whose wife is a nurse and accompanies him on trips to developing countries -- has used his influence to increase funding to fight infectious diseases abroad. Leahy has helped to increase funding for both tuberculosis and malaria; U.S. foreign aid to battle tuberculosis has tripled since 2000 to roughly $65 million, and funding to fight malaria now stands at $50 million.
Tour of Duty
As the "top Democrat and past chair of the House defense-appropriations" committee as well as a Marine veteran of Vietnam, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) "has pumped billions of dollars" into the Pentagon's health budget. And he recently worked to get a $150 million spending increase for military hospitals to increase their operating hours. Murtha "often tells of visiting a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean during the Reagan administration, and hearing the crew talk less about the standoff at the time with Libya, and more about their families' medical bills at home," the Journal reports. "I like being on the [appropriations] committee because if you have an idea, you can get something done," Murtha said (Rogers, Wall Street Journal, 7/24).
