CDC gave $25 million in bonuses while supposedly suffering from budget cuts

In the rush to lay blame for a still-nonexistent Ebola epidemic in America, cuts to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) budget have been blamed for limiting the government's response to the disease's potential threat. However, data from transparency website OpenTheBooks.com reveals that money may not have been as tight at the CDC as has been claimed.

The agency gave out $25 million in bonuses between 2007 and 2013, with individual bonuses as high as $62,895, which is more than the median household income in the United States. And despite claims that research was hampered by lack of funding, that highest bonus didn't even go to a scientist; it went to one Donald Shriber, a deputy director of policy and communication who took home $242,595 in 2011.

In 2013 and 2014, the White House proposed cuts to the CDC budget; both years, Congress added to the agency's budget instead.

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