President Bush's fiscal year 2007 budget proposal to cut CDC's operation budget by $179 million "is not a wise path to take," an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial states. Although there is "little question that the nation's public health defenses against worldwide disease threats need to be bolstered," such an effort "shouldn't come at the expense" of CDC's core programs, the editorial states. In addition, even though expenses for the Iraq war and the hurricanes in 2005 "are good reasons to take extraordinary measures to be frugal," CDC disease prevention and surveillance programs "are the envy of public health agencies worldwide and save thousands of lives each year," and they "should not be so easily sacrificed," the editorial concludes (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/31).

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