Grumpy Editor ran across a piece by Joseph Rossell, at media watchdog NewsBusters, who cited “the media’s unwillingness to point to wasteful spending” at both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that, combined, award about 64,000 research grants annually.
“The combined budgets of the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, FBI, DEA and Secret Service came to nearly $1 billion less than the NIH and CDC combined budgets,” Russell tallied.
He listed “15 wasteful programs totaling $15,135,574,669” while “NIH and CDC are still having trouble coming up with ways to fund their fight against Ebola.”
Among the rather strange taxpayer-funded programs:
NIH spent $3.2 million getting monkeys drunk exclusively on alcohol to determine what effect the beverage has long term on their body tissue.
Then there’s $90 million that NIH awarded to Chinese researchers for various public health research projects, including $2 million to develop a vaccine for a parasite disease common in China.
Less NIH funding ---$181,406 ---went to a University of Kentucky researcher to study how cocaine enhances the sex drive of Japanese quail.
Congress in 2004 voted to give NIH $1.5 million to spend on four sex studies: Mood Arousal and Sexual Risk Taking, Study on Sexual Habits of Older Men, Study on San Francisco’s Asian Prostitutes/Masseuses and Study on American Indian Transgender Research.
CDC, via ObamaCare, received $15 billion to convince Americans to make “healthy” choices through “Community Transformation Grants.”
Read other ways NIH and CDC spend taxpayer money here.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page at a correspondents’ seminar, declared: “My big fear is that this administration has been more restrictive and more challenging to the press, more dangerous to the press, really, than any administration in American history in terms of legal investigations and so on. And I think access to the White House has just gotten worse and worse.” She added, “Decisions are made in closed-door meetings, or with the silent stroke of the president's pen, or because some lobbyist got some congressman to slip his pet project into a bill during the dead of night. We have to take the blinders off the White House. The more people know about what's going on in Washington, and how their tax dollars are being spent, and who's raising money for who, the less likely it is that major decisions will be hijacked by lobbyists and special interests.” Adding to that, in illustrating the clampdown on details, Bloomberg White House correspondent Margaret Talev noted the White House has stopped providing details on fine wines served at state dinners...With the media spotlight on tomorrow’s voting, Larry Kudlow, in his syndicated column, maintained “the vast majority of political journalists…are missing a very big story.” He called it “the beginning of a new conservative revolution,” pointing out “the Republicans are going to recapture the Senate, picking up more seats than most any forecaster expects. And the House GOP is going to add to its majority”…In other election-time news, California Gov. Jerry Brown, when asked at a campaign stop in Modesto why he hasn’t done more to lay out an agenda for a fourth term, replied: “I have communicated more completely to the people of California than any other governor in history”…In early voting, a number of voting machines in Maryland and Illinois were electronically switching Republican votes to Democrat, raising suspicions that fraud could be at the root of the malfunctions. Among those encountering the vote switch: Maryland’s Queen Anne County Sheriff Gary Hofmann. The same problem occurred in Chicago where an election official attributed it to a “calibration error”…Tipping off the bad guys: News reports over the weekend revealed the U.S. is intercepting Syria president’s communications for information on Islamic State militants…The New York Times Co. informed investors to expect a drop in fourth quarter ad spending. That sent its stock down 6 percent on Thursday. The Times, which last month announced plans to cut 100 newsroom employees, is working to transform itself into a digital newsroom with specialized stories and online subscription packages.
No stop-the-presses surprise here. Newspaper headline following Vice President Joe Biden’s appearance Saturday at a Las Vegas rally: Biden urges Latino voters to turn out for Democrats.
