The distain for science by the Republican Party has been evident since 2000. The ideological ban on government-funded stem cell research clearly inhibited progress towards cures in many areas including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and numerous genetic diseases. Stem cell research carried on with the US - in research funded by private companies (that are not required to report their results for general scientific dissemination) as well as overseas. Major efforts in stem cell discovery during the Bush era began in Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and of course mainland China. Patents for stem cell discoveries during these years are just now beginning to appear and it is clear that royalties for several yet-to-be-realized major medical applications will not be going to Americans. It is not even clear that American will be able to participate in clinical trials based on these yet-to-be-realized discoveries. Such issues will once again create major disparities in the ability to access cutting-edge health care, since only the rich will be able to enjoy these yet-to-be-realized cures at overseas clinics.
Of course this ideological lunacy applies to global climate change and the volumes of biological sciences that are underpinned by the science and mathematics of evolution. If the Republican’s can find one lunatic that doesn’t believe in the theory of gravity, it is clear that they will begin legislation against it. Of course we will all remain attached to the surface of the earth – and some bright Chinese scientist will discover the basis of gravity and the economic consequences will swallow the rest of the world!
OK - that last sentence was a snark! THIS is not.
The Republican Party proposes to make a 5.2% cut in the medical research budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH is the major funder of wide ranging medical research from cancer to diabetes to mental health. The total NIH budget for medical research is just under $31 billion. That is a mere 1% of the US budget that we spend on trying to understand the molecules of life and translate that understanding into better medicine.
Medical research provides one of the foundations for technological enterprise. It is that technological enterprise that has sustained America in a leadership role and ultimately provided the “American Dream”. One really only has to consider the Moon Race of the 60’s … and all the technology that we commonly use today that grew out of the “Research” to land a human on the moon.
The Republicans are shooting everyone in the proverbial foot with this maneuver. The $1.6 billion that they propose to cut funds approximately 6000 academic science labs across the country. That is perhaps 30,000 jobs dedicated to scientific discovery for the betterment of mankind – and ultimately economic infusion.
Once again the Republicans cannot see the forest for the trees. Their ideology has been, and continues to, strip America of its innovative scientific leadership. Nice job Boner and Ry-man. If you had any understanding of science at all – you would double the NIH budget – since it is clearly connected to the American Dream. Your tears lamenting the "American Dream" will be dried in the dust of your grave along with any semblance of American medical and technological leadership in the future.
