Re: Do CDC Employees Need Zero-Gravity Chairs?

June 13, 2007

I'm really ok with the CDC spending money to make sure their place is state of

the art... FRANKLY, I WANT them to be so at least in part so that they can

attract excellent scientists. I'd also love it if they would eventually use the

independence they theoretically have to take a better look at what mold does to

some of us.

~Haley

Darlene <darlenesb2000@...> wrote:

Do CDC Employees Need Zero-Gravity Chairs?

By Tom Shoop | Wednesday, June 13, 2007

| 09:49 AM

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is on the trail of federal waste again. This time his

target is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a new report

detailed in USA Today, Coburn questions a billion-dollar construction project at

the agency's headquarters in Atlanta. The project includes a $106 million

communications center, an $18.6 million video production studio, and a new

employee fitness center with " $200,000 in equipment such as zero-gravity chairs

and a mood-enhancing light show. " The CDC says the agency needs " first-rate

facilities for first-rate employees. "

Coburn also decries the $1.7 million the CDC has spent on a Hollywood liaison

office aimed at improving the accuracy of medical information in TV shows. " It

is hard to argue in this day and age that television producers do not have an

incentive, without federal taxpayer involvement, to get their story lines

correct, " Coburn's report says.

Is it? TV producers need to make their shows compelling and dramatic, but

they don't gain much by investing their own time and energy in medical accuracy.

In fact, they could lose a lot if being accurate made their shows less

sensational. Of course, you can argue that it's still not worth spending

taxpayer dollars to try to get Hollywood producers to stick to the facts, but

that's a different issue than whether they would do it by themselves without any

prodding. And remember, the military's done much to burnish its image by

aggressively reaching out to Hollywood. So have other agencies over the past

decade.

---------------------------------

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June 13, 2007

I think their (the administration and their political appointees) main

concern when spending money is to make sure their friends get it.

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