Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute devotes a National Review Online column to rebutting Democratic Party rhetoric involving the Ebola virus.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Government fails at one of its most basic tasks. In response, the politicians from both parties complain that we are not spending enough money. And Democrats, in particular, claim that the failure never would have happened if only the evil Republicans had not cut some agency’s budget. Sound familiar?

This hoary Washington drama is now playing out in regards to Ebola. With one death and one active case in Dallas, and several more Americans under observation, it is becoming clear that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were not prepared for the possibility of this event. Protocols were not in place, training was incomplete, and so forth.

In response, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) began running ads saying “Republicans voted to cut the CDC’s budget to fight Ebola.” Meanwhile the Agenda Project Action Fund, a liberal PAC, is running an ad targeting Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and several GOP Senate candidates; the ad links the GOP to Ebola, and claims: “Republican Cuts Kill.” In Arkansas, embattled Senator Mark Pryor (D.) waded into the issue directly, accusing his opponent, Representative Tom Cotton (R.), of voting “to cut billions from our nation’s medical disaster and emergency programs.” Even Hillary Clinton weighed in, claiming the CDC is “working heroically, but they don’t have the resources they used to have.”

It is true that spending for the CDC has dipped ever so slightly since 2011, but the cuts followed years of massive increases. Overall, since 2000, CDC outlays have almost doubled, from $3.5 billion to $6.8 billion (in 2014 constant dollars). Moreover, in January, the Republican-controlled House actually passed legislation that increased CDC spending for 2014 by $567 million — $300 million more than was requested by President Obama.

It’s not that the CDC hasn’t had money, it’s that the money has been spent on things that have little or nothing to do with the agency’s mission of protecting Americans from health threats.