Sen. Orrin Hatch has never been shy in voicing his concerns about President Obama’s health care law, but he was particularly put off by one aspect of a newly created health innovation center under the Affordable Care Act — treadmill desks.
Mr. Hatch, Utah Republican and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, used his opening statement at a hearing on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to criticize the center as a bureaucracy that received “$10 billion in taxpayer funds with no strings attached.”
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But he also cited a study from the Government Accountability Office that said some staffers have “state-of-the-art workspaces, including very expensive treadmill desks.”
“In a post-sequester world, where White House tours are being cancelled and Easter egg hunts are being threatened,” he said, “you can imagine why American people would take a very cynical view about federal employees being furnished with thousand-dollar treadmill desks.”
