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How the CDC spends billions of tax dollars


Did you know that as a U.S. taxpayer you have helped fund a transgender beauty pageant? That is just one on a long list of bloated expenses by the tax-funded Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding recently told the U.S. Senate that her agency needed an additional billion dollars. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) decided to see how the CDC had spent its last $10 billion. What he found will make you sick.

The CDC has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars during the past few years on everything from vegetable statues to zero gravity chairs. Sen. Coburn shows in his report, "CDC Off Center," that the CDC has spent millions on lavish facilities, questionable conferences, and new offices in the home states of committee members who oversee its funding.

Some examples in the report of CDC’s spending:

    *
      $1.7 million — including terrorism funds — on a Hollywood liaison program, which happens to be run by a former employee (pg. 87);
    * $45 million for conferences, including those featuring prostitutes, protests, and beach parties (pgs. 48 - 60);
    * $30,000 employee saunas in a new $200,000 fitness center that also includes mood-enhancing lightshows and $3,500 worth of zero-gravity chairs (pg. 15);
    * $5 billion spent over seven years on HIV/AIDS prevention funding, and yet the U.S. still sees 40,000 new cases each year, with no decrease in infection rates for over a decade (pgs. 23-37);
    * Syphilis prevention funds used to feature a porn star’s presentation (pg. 44);
    * HIV/AIDS prevention funds spent on a transgender beauty pageant (pg. 45);
    * $250,000 spent so two former employees could help build staff morale, (pgs. 100 - 101);
    * $5.1 million on “audio visual integration” in the new Thomas R. Harkin communications and visitor center, including a giant 70-foot-wide by 25-foot-tall video wall of plasma screen TVs showcasing agency vignettes (pg. 8);
    * 110 CDC employees traveled to two international AIDS conferences, when buying retroviral drugs with the trip funds could have prevented mother-to-child AIDS transmission for more than 115,000 infants (pgs. 50 & 52);
    * New Hawaii office opening soon, announcement made by Senator from Hawaii who oversees agency’s funding (pg. 18);
    * $335 million on ads to fight childhood obesity… kids saw the ads, whether or not the ads affected their behavior is another question (pgs. 69 - 71);
    * $128,000 in CDC bioterrorism funds spent by L.A. County on trinkets such as letter openers, whistles, magnets, mouse pads, flashlights, pens, and travel toothbrushes (pgs. 106 - 110).

The report also includes:

    * A detailed graph showing CDC’s yearly budget from 1995-2007, which has increased by more than 350% (pg. 7); and
    * A chart showing yearly CDC’s HIV/AIDS funding from 2001-2007, which has more than doubled during that time (pg. 115).

But, instead of making good use of the billions the CDC gets, Dr. Gerberding says she needs an additional billion dollars to operate. If Dr. Gerberding wants to keep the "safe sex" events with a porn star, international conferences featuring prostitutes and beach parties, and a bar night teaching how to throw a good party with lots of alcohol, let her get it from the millions wasted by the CDC.

The full CDC OFF CENTER Report:

http://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=0e72b780-363a-4777-b841-20925a304d20

Sen. Coburn awards CDC failing grade in money management

Outrage is building among conservatives following a report released by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) which accuses the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of wasting millions of its budgeted billions in taxpayer dollars this decade on objectionable "safe sex" events and presentations.



Coburn's 115-page report, "CDC Off Center," documents use of agency dollars given to local and regional organizations that have sponsored, among other things: conferences featuring prostitutes and beach parties; a presentation on syphilis prevention made by a porn star; a transgender beauty pageant; and a $200,000 fitness center with zero-gravity chairs and "mood-enhancing lightshows." Coburn's office asserts that the CDC "has wasted and continues to waste hundreds of millions of tax dollars, but keeps asking taxpayers for more."

CDC spokesman Tom Skinner says his agency has communicated with Coburn's office. He contends they do care about proper use of taxpayer money, and regularly investigate any alleged violation of agency rules in use of various program funds.

"We at CDC certainly share Senator Coburn's desire for and need for government agencies to be accountable," says Skinner. "And we strive each and every day at CDC to be diligent stewards of the funds -- American taxpayer funds -- that are entrusted to our agency."

The request by CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding for an additional one billion dollars above its annual $10 billion budget, was what keyed off Coburn and the Federal Financial Management Subcommittee to look at and report on how budget dollars were being spent.

Coburn says the goal in releasing the report is to help the CDC make better funding decisions toward fulfilling its primary mission of preventing, fighting, and controlling disease and public safety threats. "CDC employs many honest, hard-working people who shoulder a very important mission for our nation," the senator states in a press release. "Yet, like most agencies, it offers many examples of how an agency with a large budget can veer off track in prioritizing its funds."