Mostly False
The CDC is “spending money on things like jazzercise, urban gardening and massage therapy” that could be redirected to Ebola.
— Cory Gardner on Wednesday, October 15th, 2014 in a debate
As fears over Ebola reached a crescendo, Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., took a shot at the federal government’s handling of the disease during a debate with Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.
Gardner went on to win the closely watched Colorado Senate race, one of many nationwide in which Ebola became an issue.
Gardner, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, “Perhaps the CDC should quit spending money on things like jazzercise, urban gardening and massage therapy and direct that money to where it’s appropriate in protecting the health of the American people.”
We wondered if it was true that the government is spending money on jazzercise, urban gardening and the like at the expense of funding for Ebola.
Neither Gardner’s staff nor the CDC got back to us with evidence either way.
However, we found an unsigned column from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page that makes that claim about the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
We then investigated the questions the column raised about the fund and how it allocates funding.
The fund was established with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Initially, it was supposed to be funded by $15 billion over its first 10 years; legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in 2012 cut that amount by $5 billion over 10 years.
The purpose of the fund is “to provide expanded and sustained national investments in prevention and public health, to improve health outcomes, and to enhance health care quality.”
Republicans questioned whether the government should be paying for things that people can do for free, like exercise.
We were only able to document broad categories of spending from the fund; once we drilled down into online disclosure forms for grants, they didn’t cite such specific details as “jazzercise,” “urban gardening” or “massage therapy.”
But when we asked public-health experts whether such categories could have been spent on those kinds of activities, they said it’s likely.
The fund’s mission is to “improve health and prevent chronic illnesses by expanding preventive care and supporting proven community-based programs that reduce obesity, tobacco use and other preventable conditions, and I would think that healthy food and physical activity efforts would fit right in,” said Elizabeth Rigby, an associate professor of public policy and public administration at George Washington University.
Glen Mays, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, agreed.
“Are there scientifically proven prevention strategies that involve helping people reach recommended levels of daily exercise through organized group activities like ‘jazzercise, urban gardening, or other forms of physical activity? Absolutely,” Mays said, citing CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program and WISEWOMAN program.
Bottom line: We aren’t 100 percent sure that CDC dollars have been spent on jazzercise, urban gardens or massage therapy, but it’s quite possible they have been.
Still, Gardner’s criticism is pretty misleading.
Here’s a flavor of how CDC plans to spend money from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in fiscal year 2014.
• Immunization: $160 million;
• Smoking prevention: $105 million;
• Cancer prevention and control: $104 million;
• Heart disease and stroke prevention: $77 million;
The total for all the preventative activities was a whopping $831 million.
More than half went for categories that would be irrelevant for the items Gardner cites. And even within the $300 million-plus spent on items such as preventing obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer, experts are certain that items such as jazzercise represent a tiny fraction of what CDC is spending.
Gardner is confusing matters by making it prevention vs. Ebola.
People might chuckle at the thought of federal money going to jazzercise. But it’s important not to lose sight of the fund’s purpose — prevention.
“Prevention” has been part of the official name of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1992. The “P” never made it into the agency’s common acronym, but it’s an important part of the agency’s mission nonetheless.
Gardner’s flip dismissal of preventive-health efforts obscures the imbalance in the number of lives at stake every year.
Our ruling
Gardner said the CDC is “spending money on things like jazzercise, urban gardening and massage therapy” that could be redirected Ebola.
We weren’t able to document expenditures such as jazzercise and urban gardening, but given the agency’s spending parameters, it’s certainly possible they’ve been made. However, by cherry-picking chuckle- (or outrage-) inducing spending items, Gardner presents a misleading description of what the fund does.
The claim contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
We rate it Mostly False.
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