Of course, the GOP and right wing are in lockstep in blaming the CDC and other public health officials for putting the focus on eating habits instead of Ebola research.

That completely ignores the fact that the CDC, NIH, and public health experts in the US have to prioritize the ailments that they most come into contact with - and that means dealing with obesity, which is a major factor in public health crises in the US (from diabetes to heart disease, etc.).

The decline in funding for public health comes at a real cost, and it’s only because of the 9/11 attacks and anthrax that the CDC even has the 20 quarantine centers around the country; the number had dwindled down to 5 before the 9/11 attacks.

The GOP has been out to chop funding at the CDC and NIH for years.

The CDC budget has been cut by $600 million since 2010.

According to numbers provided by a Senate Budget Committee staffer, the CDC has actually recovered nicely from the sequestration cuts that went into effect a year ago. The agency has been allocated $5.882 billion in fiscal year 2014, compared to the $5.432 billion it received after the cuts took place.

But if you move back the timeline a bit, you see that investment in the CDC has still fallen dramatically. The agency’s current budget, in fact, is nearly $600 million lower than it was in 2010.

2010: $6.467 billion
2011: $5.737 billion
2012: $5.732 billion
2013: $5.721 billion
2013 (after sequestration took effect): $5.432 billion
2014: $5.882 billion

While some of the funding was restored after the budget agreement between the House and Senate in early 2014, “there is still a gap between FY14 and FY10,” the Senate aide noted.

From 2011 - the GOP went into slash and burn mode with the CDC, FDA, and other agencies, and those cuts have not been restored. The GOP rationalized this that they needed to chop spending because of massive deficits and debt. Yeah, let’s just ignore what those cuts do to public health.

These charts and graphic puts the recent trend into focus - the GOP, which controls the House has been forcing CDC spending down, even as the President has sought more funding.

Even going back to Bush’s first budget in 2001, the CDC was seeing its budget cut (this was pre-anthrax attacks, but the FDA saw an increase, in part out of the attention on mad cow disease).

Much more recently, the House GOP cut funding requests for fighting Ebola this past September.