It is crunch time in the U.S. Congress for our efforts to fund heart disease and stroke prevention efforts. A conference committee is currently considering the budget for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth,
are members of that committee. Because the committee is expected to act soon we are encouraging you contact them by phone or email.
Please contact them and ask for their support for a $50 million appropriation to the
CDC to fund a comprehensive cardiovascular health program in all 50 states.
Here are some points you may use in your phone call or paste into your e-mail:
* Heart disease and stroke are the number one and number three killers of all Americans.
* This year, cardiovascular disease will cost our nation an estimated $300 billion for medical costs and lost productivity. This cost could increase significantly as the current generation of baby boomers ages.
* Research indicates that people can reduce their risk of death and disability from heart disease and stroke by avoiding risky behaviors and receiving early diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
* The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are important for our nation's effort to reduce the impact of heart disease and stroke.
* The CDC's Cardiovascular Health Program promotes physical activity and healthy eating as well as preventing or controlling elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.
* Appropriations to help fight heart disease and stroke are a sound investment of taxpayer dollars. The research and programs they fund today will result in inestimable savings far into the future.
You may contact Representative Granger at:
(202) 225-5071 or (817) 338-0909 or
e-mail her at
texas.granger@mail.house.gov.
You may contact Senator Hutchison at: (202) 224-5922 or e-mail her at
senator@hutchison.senate.gov.
Please communicate with them as soon as possible as action is expected from this committee any day.
Again, thank you for helping fulfill the mission of the American Heart Association.
Tim Conger
Vice President of Public Advocacy and Communications
American Heart Association, Texas Affiliate
(512) 433-7130 email:
tim.conger@heart.org
[UNQUOTE]
I am in favor of research for and development of practices, medications and treatments to reduce the danger of death from heart disease and stroke. However, I am against this funding.
The Centers for Disease Control consider firearms possession a health threat – a disease to be eliminated. Even if the $50,000,000 is used for purely medical research, it frees up other CDC funds to be used against gun ownership in America. The CDC has become too politically biased and active to support with our tax dollars.
Therefore, I am asking that you fight this funding. Let private medical research, operating on the profit motive, be the vehicle for improving our medical struggle against heart disease and stroke.
The CDC will not die without this funding, but our Rights may be endangered WITH this funding.
