Major Waste At Centers For Disease Control

The federal agency in charge of preventing disease in the United States has wasted hundreds of millions of tax dollars on items unrelated to its mission such as a lavish new headquarter, fancy furniture and a state-of-the-art fitness center for its employees.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) spent $1.7 million on a Hollywood liaison that helps television dramas and soap operas write accurate medical plots free of charge, thanks to U.S. taxpayers.

The agency’s new Atlanta headquarters cost $109 million and it is filled with $10 million worth of upscale furniture, which works out to $12,000 per person in the building, according to a scathing 115-page Senate report documenting the outrageous waste. The posh fitness center cost $200,000 and features $30,000 saunas, quiet rooms and mood-enhancing light shows for stressed employees.

The CDC has also misspent taxpayer dollars when it comes to its disease prevention mission. AIDS grants have been given to groups that have instead utilized the money to conduct workshops on erotic writing, how to flirt and how to throw a party. The CDC also blew $5 billion in the last seven years on AIDS prevention, but the infection rate has not dropped a bit.

The agency has also spent nearly $300 million in its effort to eliminate syphilis yet the disease’s rate actually went up almost 70% in the country. Despite the ongoing abuse, CDC officials had the audacity to ask Congress for an extra $1 billion for 2008 in addition to its $10 billion annual budget.

Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation’s public life. To view the Judicial Watch Internet site click here (www.judicialwatch.org).