White House Slashed CDC Warming Report

Administration Denies It 'Watered Down' Director's Congressional Testimony

(AP)  The White House significantly edited testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on the impact of climate change on health, deleting key portions citing diseases that could flourish in a warmer climate, documents obtained by The Associated Press showed Wednesday.

The White House on Wednesday denied that it had "watered down" the congressional testimony that Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had given the day before to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

But a draft of the testimony submitted for White House review shows that six pages of details about specific disease and other health problems that might flourish if the Earth warms were not delivered at the hearing.

The draft noted that "scientific evidence supports the view that the earth's climate is changing" and that many groups are working to address climate change. "Despite this extensive activity, the public health effects of climate change remain largely unaddressed. CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern," the draft declares.

That paragraph was not in Gerberding's text as approved by the White House.

The draft document was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press from a source other than the CDC, the Atlanta-based agency considered the government's premier disease tracking and monitoring agency.

Two sources familiar with the documents told the AP on Tuesday, after the Senate hearing, that the White House Office of Management and Budget edited the CDC director's congressional testimony, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks.

Gerberding told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that climate change "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."

But her prepared testimony was devoted almost entirely to the CDC's preparation, with few details on what effects climate change could have on the spread of disease. The prepared remarks covered six pages. The draft submitted for OMB was twice as long.

Referring to the draft, one CDC official familiar with both versions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the review process, said that "it was eviscerated."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the prepared testimony went through an interagency review process and the Office of Science and Technology Policy did not believe that the science in the testimony matched the science that was in a report by the International Panel on Climate Change.

"She testified yesterday. Her spokesperson said that she was able to say everything she wanted to say," Perino said. "It was not watered down in terms of its science. It wasn't watered down in terms of the concerns that climate change raises for public health."

[bigsk8fan]

george w bush has his view of what is happening. and if science disagrees, then he just covers it up. bush has silenced many scientists who believe the world is round, global warming exists, and processes of evolution can be proved. what''s up with that, george?

[fredhetz]

This administration has been so pathetically against science that doesn''t support its own purposes. This has happened time and again and every time the White House denies having edited anything. Pathetic.

[itgranny]

Whether or not you believe in global warming the fact remains we''re just renters here on earth and we need to start looking whether or not we''re leaving the earth as nice as when we moved in. Our kids and grandkids are going to need to live here and we should be concerned that we leave it in good shape so they have a nice place to live too.

When we look across a city and see nothing but smog, there''s something wrong. The mouth of the Mississippi is a mess because of our fertilizers. Plastic garbage is all over the place. We have to start looking at what our actions are going to do, not only to us, but for generations to come.

We need to realize it doesn''t matter what the thermometer says, bottomline is having the lifestyle we have now going to cost our kids?

[terrapin78]

White Houses denials on all subjects/issues seems to be increasing all the time. Must $uck to be them!!

What a joke the Bu$h Administration is!!!!!!

[jn122736]

%u201CShe testified yesterday. Her spokesperson said that she was able to say everything she wanted to say," Perino said. "It was not watered down in terms of its science. It wasn''t watered down in terms of the concerns that climate change raises for public health."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Senate hearings, by design, are intended to weigh the testimony of ALL witness in order to make such decisions.

Redacting parts of the intended testimony is equivalent to obstructing legal senatorial process.

If none are above the law, why isn%u2019t such action be prosecuted?

[frankly6]

They''ve done this across the board. They hire non-scientist political operatives to edit governement scientists reports to exclude anything that points to the devastating consequences of Global Warming. They''ve been caught doing it multiple times. Now that there''s a little oversight in Congress many of these muzzled scientists are coming forward.

The Bush administration is totally corrupt and in the pocket of oil companies.

[gkc99]

This is how the "faith-based" government of George W. Bushit works. It is an item of faith of the neocons that global warming is not a problem, and any facts that inconveniently contradict that faith are ignored, buried, or ridiculed. Those people who persist in stating the inconvenient facts are smeared, mocked, or removed from public view.

We wouldn''t want any Repugniscum Neocons feeling guilty about driving their 6 mpg Republican Road Hippos, now would we?

[lucyinbuford]

Are we supposed to be shocked? This is par for the course for this regime, er, administration. Do they really think we are all so stupid? Silly question.

[pam1sadge]

Bush needs to get out sooner rather than later! He only serves himself not the people!

[toolmangler-2009]

"PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE GREEN CUTAIN, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL ''W'' HAS SPOKEN!!!!!!"

[forthepeopl1]

He will say that while much of the rest of Latin America has moved from dictatorship to democracy, Cuba continues to use repression and terror to control its people. And, the administration official said, Mr. Bush will direct another part of his speech to the Cuban people, telling them they %u201Chave the power to shape their destiny and bring about change.%u201D

The administration official said Mr. Bush was expected to tell Cuban viewers that %u201Csoon they will have to make a choice between freedom and the force used by a dying regime.%u201D

BUSH HAS STATED HIMSELF IN THIS SPEECH WHAT ALL AMERICANS SHOULD BE DOING...WE SHOULD TAKE OVER WASHINGTON AND GET BACK OUR COUNTRY...ITS UP TO US AMERICANS TO DO IT

[gunownerdan]

How does the government know if our air and water is clean?
Bush simply says "It looks clean enough to me." and that''s that.

[tejasdemo]

This administration has broken every single line of trust it was given. Wow, I wonder how their kids feel about all this blatant disception ?

[aaabee-2009]

The White House significantly edited testimony prepared for a Senate hearing..."

"The White House" cannot hold a pen. Who is the person or persons who edited the testimony?

Why?

Dr. Gerberding can come to the Senate and repeat her analysis. Or she could go to the media and repeat her analysis. Or she could put her analysis into print.

So what if "The White House" edited it. If the Senate eats only what "the White House" wants to feed it, Congress would die of starvation in less time than Ms. Shivo.

Get Dr. Gerberding to repeat what she said, and then
PUBLISH THE DIFFERENCES before Cheney has a chance to classify the report as national security.

[toolmangler-2009]

Get Dr. Gerberding to repeat what she said, and then
PUBLISH THE DIFFERENCES before Cheney has a chance to classify the report as national security.

Posted by AaaBee at 12:30 PM : Oct 24, 2007


''Absoposislutely''

[kpokey]

This is the fascist in action again. Screw the American people. If any science is against their corporate goals, the just supress, downplay or ban the science from being reported. They only care about their companies, not Americans or America. That''s fascism.

[Krazcarl]

Be leery one of the big questions on all nursing test {was one} is what does bacteria need to survive,,,answer a warm moist environment. Whit the caps melting temperatures rising the perfect environment do not be surprised with an increase in disease the earth is trying to take care of itself so it won''t turn into Venus, I assure you be leery

[mudrose-2009]

Get Dr. Gerberding to repeat what she said, and then
PUBLISH THE DIFFERENCES before Cheney has a chance to classify the report as national security.
Posted by AaaBee

Quick run to the media, they''ll tell the truth, they''ll tell the truth. Hahahahaha.

[jjp735i]

More Bushit!! Now the White House is forcing the CDC to downplay a report? The CDC report should be made public in the true format is was written in.

[mudrose-2009]

More Bushit!! Now the White House is forcing the CDC to downplay a report? The CDC report should be made public in the true format is was written in.
Posted by jjp735i

Look the only thing they left out is the fact that if it gets too hot, you''ll get boils on your face.

[aaabee-2009]

Quick run to the media, they''''ll tell the truth, they''''ll tell the truth. Hahahahaha." Posted by mudrose at 12:41 PM : Oct 24, 2007

I am not sure how you meant this.

Aren''t you one of the Bush advocates that complain the media is liberal biased? If so, testimony like this should make it out just fine.

And if you are complaining that there is no truth in media, aren''t you admitting that the corporate-owned mass media outlets like Ruperts and Turners are not telling the American people the truth?

Not being sarcastic, just a question.

[johnstossel]

Bush is a LIAR!!!!!!

[lloydbest1]

We need to realize it doesn''t matter what the thermometer says, bottomline is having the lifestyle we have now going to cost our kids?
Posted by itgrammy at 11:52 AM : Oct 24, 2007

The answer is an unqualified "yes". It will cost dearly; and the piper will demand payment long before we who are in our late youth (I''m over 50) get to see retirement let alone live out our "threescore and ten".
I live simply. I use my 11 year old vehicle only when I absolutely have to; keep the thermostat below 65 (or 18 to you Europeans); never water my lawn; buy used clothing - can get some amazing bargains here; Buy locally grown food or grow my own and refrain from sucking on the grid when doing my chores.
I do not do this to be virtuous. I am low income (not poor, mind, but merely a little deficient in funding) and simply can not afford to have the lifestyle many Americans seem to expect as their due.
This lifestyle can not be sustained. In fact, my own as simple as I have tried to make it, may not be either. As more people are added to the planet and such nations as India and China ramp up their expectations of the "good life", the resource extraction required to fuel this material abundance may do far worse than overheat our planet.
"Living simply so others may simply live" is not just an altruistic consideration for the common good but is also a template to follow for our own survival.

[walt1944-2009]

The Great Emperor Bush is accused of having members of his court extensively edit a report on global warming. The sections deleted had to do with diseases resulting from global warming.

It appears that the reasons why those sections were deleted were because "top men" regarded them as "unsubstantiated fantasy" and apparently consulted with the right-wing "experts" on global warming, those being Professor Micheal Savage, Doctor Rush Limbaugh, and Doctor Bill O''Reilly, together with the Reverand Anne Coulter to support their case.

As expected, all these "experts" agree that global warming is a myth perpetrated by the evil, left-wing Liberals and the misguided scientific community, and that there is nothing to worry about!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!

[aaabee-2009]

Posted by LloydBest1 at 12:55 PM : Oct 24, 2007

Great post. The sacrifices of the few are expected to make up for the selfishness of the many.

[toolmangler-2009]

I have a fable for you;
Once upon a time there was a planet that had a thriving civilation. the inhabitants were very intelligent but somewhat short sighted. The industrial moguls were a bit on the greedy side and only looked at the bottom line and not very far into the future. The peoples of this world worked hard and learned everything they could about the world around them. As they advanced, their need for power grew exponentially and they searched the entire planet for more resources of energy but one day, they realized that the reserves were exhausted and they became frantic because no more liquid energy could be found. At this same time, the planet was racked by devastating events like droughts, earthquakes, extreme temperature changes and all forms of illnesses. Water was in such short supply that individuals were being killed and the water recovered from their bodies was sold by robber barons and other gangs. You might ask what happened to the water and receive this answer. "the energy companies pumped it into the ground to take the place of the liquid fuels they were extracting so that the surface of the world would not crash into the gaping holes left when the world was sucked dry."
End part (1)

[frankly6]

They''''ve done this across the board. They hire non-scientist political operatives to edit governement scientists reports to exclude anything that points to the devastating consequences of Global Warming. They''''ve been caught doing it multiple times. Now that there''''s a little oversight in Congress many of these muzzled scientists are coming forward.

The Bush administration is totally corrupt and in the pocket of oil companies.

[toolmangler-2009]

Begin part (2)

Now the planet is so parched that nothing can grow. Billions have already died and now they have only a few hundred left to propagate the species. Then they all boarded the only means of escape and rocketed into the skies hoping against hope that the third Planet might be able to provide a place to live. They all vowed with one voice to "Never destroy their world again". God slumped and said to himself,"WANNA BET! and a tear fell as he looked at Mars and saw the red dust covering all he had made for them?"

[Krazcarl]

TOOLMANGLER...did you work for star trak but sounds like a cool movie.

[gwhaia]

Stop talking politics people. Start talking survival. Bush and his people are stealing the world from us and our children. How the hell does their editing of this CDC report not smack of the same censorship that was prevalent in Nazi Germany? Don''t you see it people? We are sitting fat dumb and happy in our Hummers and behind our flat panel televisions and we are letting these idiots and greedy *** steal our future. And our fat 401K plans aren''t going to be worth squat if the whole world is on fire and there''s now water to put it out and all the firefighters have come down with MRSA or West Nile!

DO SOMETHING! The generation of the 60''s has to rise up and do what we did best back then....get angry and change the world! God knows the kids are all too busy watching Brittney''s lips grow or chasing the latest bling cell phone.

DO SOMETHING! DO ANYTHING!

[andor3]

what do you do when your fantasy version of things is inconveniently undermined by experts and truth? If you are GWB, you repress the facts and pretend they don''t exist. And attack anyone who calls you on it.

These people are beyond lying--they seem to actually believe that the truth is determined by what they believe and what they can convince others to believe.

[lochlan-2009]

If you believe anything the White House says, than I''d like you ro know that I''m the Pope and I have an excellent deal on land in the Lords kingdom. Limited time only.

[gkc99]

"DO SOMETHING! The generation of the 60''''s has to rise up and do what we did best back then....get angry and change the world! God knows the kids are all too busy watching Brittney''''s lips grow or chasing the latest bling cell phone"--Posted by gwhaia


Amen brother! Unfortunately, Generation X was coopted during the Reagan years to believe the "Greed is Good", or "Greed is God" is more like it. Generation D has been so burdened with student debt and brainwashed by mass media, although even so some are resisting. But the Boomers, who could wield plenty of clout, need to step up and START CAUSING SOME SH*T! Don''t take the fascist takeover of America lying down! Hold Bushit and his lying band of thieves and traitors to account!

[dowjones20k]

If one reads the report .. it specifically uses words like .. might flourish, potential health risks ...
So with that said .. we can all specualte ... and just go ahead and guess ..

my guess is .. if china, india and all the other emerging countries dont implement the same standards we are calling for then what is gained?

it will bne impossible to enforce green standards in another soverign nation ...

If all of you crybabies are so concerned about the environment then STOP using electricity, cars, oil etc etc ..

A bunch of whining hypocrites !!!

Get Real !! FOOLS !!

Go Sox !!

[dowjones20k]

and all you little morons who think al gore is some savior .. PLEASE !!

He aint nothing but another politician .. like bush and all the others .. a bunch of lying, cheating, stealing, whats in it for me crooks ..

And as for the Boomers doing anything? IDIOTS !!

The boomers are the ones who have taught their kids to be lazy, greedy, foolish, disrepectful, arrogant and every other adjective one can come up with ..

Like the sierra club and all the other so called environmentalists .. leave the forest alone .. dont clean brush or dead growth out ..

so now you have nasty fires burning out of control, killing people and destrying homes and neighborhoods .. gotts love those tree huggers !!!

FOOLS !!

Go Sox !!

[tejasdemo]

Bush is lying

[liberalme]

Bush is forever in the middle of a river--de-nile!

[liberalme]

gwhia--it starts with US WE have to do something!!!!!!!!!!!

[undermyboot]

Thank God we are taking science out of the hands of arrogant know-it-all scientists! The only way to formulate good scientific research is to have the current elected representatives determine what science is correct. The people should not be confused with scientific "facts" that might disturb their lives or threaten to challenge their closely held beliefs. Let''s leave science to the politicians. They have proven over and over again how competent they are at everything we place in their hands.

[pepperp1]

LIES, MORE LIES, LIES, MORE LIES, LIES, MORE Lies, QUACK, QUACK 12 months to go no one listen to the Bush Administration%u2026%u2026%u2026 stupid is as stupid dose.

[trillion1]

Interesting that all the firefighters blame climate change. Something the bushettes don''t believe in. Maybe dowjones can straighten them out.

[cassandragop]

The Flat Earth Society strikes again.

[toolmangler-2009]

Go Sox !!

Posted by Dowjones20k at 01:42 PM : Oct 24, 2007


Sox Sux, (yankee fan)

[mudrose-2009]

Not being sarcastic, just a question.
Posted by AaaBee

How much did you hear about Lt. Michael Murphy? How much did you hear about a huge March in downtown Trenton against Same-S/ex Marriage because the significance of this is that it would be the first state to legislate same-*** marriage? The media selects what it wants you to hear. Murphy was a medal of honor recipient. He died for his country. How much did you hear?

[bad327]

LloydBest1 at 12:55 PM -

Very Well Said!!

[oscarez]

"deleting key portions citing diseases that could flourish in a warmer climate"

Bush said, "Delete anything that might cause any one to ask for health care. Besides, diseases are from God and who are we to question God."

[marcodele]

Actually I read a whole lot about Murray, the medal of honor recipient.

What''s that got to do with this article? Is that how neocons avoid intelligent discussions? They just start ranting about the media or *** or something that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand?

Pathetic.

[mcvet]

How low can a Human get? This LOW LIFE piece of Human Trash that a FEW and I do mean a few still call a President doesn''t want us to know the whole TRUTH about this God Awlful Mess we''re in and that''s okay. Sending our kids to die "Keeping Peace" in another country? Well that''s okay. If someone doesn''t stuff this piece of *** in a dumpster before next year it will be a miricle. I just have to wonder where people like Bush come from? Who on this planet would put their "Party" and his backward beliefs ahead of peoples safety? Wow!! Sieg Heil Bush!!

[mcvet]

How much did you hear about Lt. Michael Murphy? How much did you hear about a huge March in downtown Trenton against Same-S/ex Marriage because the significance of this is that it would be the first state to legislate same-*** marriage? The media selects what it wants you to hear. Murphy was a medal of honor recipient. He died for his country. How much did you hear?


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

Posted by mudrose at 02:43 PM : Oct 24, 2007
+ report abuse

Can I ask what that has to do with this story? YOU fascist had better wake up here or we''re all going to be dead. This piece of Trash a few call a President had NO RIGHT to keep this info from the people of this nation. Obviously you haven''t read the Constitution lately but it CLEARLY says WE the PEOPLE... Not people that may be born of only people who sleep with certain people.... I''m so tired of you wacked out Religous Right People. What''s it with you? You clowns act like YOUR opinion is the ONLY one that matters and no matter the issue it''s always about your bigotry or your hate. I think a situation where our supposed leader is denying WE the PEOPLE the truth is just a wee bit more important than your latest crusade!! Sieg Heil and Amen.

[superdem]

Now you KNOW the Bush White House can''t issue a report that says people are going to get sick due to global warming - people might become alarmed and want Bush to DO SOMETHING, and that would cost his rich corporate friends some money and cut their profits, besides putting the lie to everything they''ve been saying about the climate and pollution and Al Gore. It''s so much easier to cut the guts out of the scientific report, the Republicans don''t like or trust science anyway. And then they can just lie like they always do, and say they didn''t do what they in fact did, which is change the thrust and intent of the report. Problem solved.