February 27, 2013

The Malignancy in Federal Medical Research

When George W. Bush was stumping as a “compassionate conservative” in the closing days of the 2000 presidential campaign, he went to Florida and repeated a campaign promise to double the funding for the National Institutes of Health. “I will lead a medical moon shot to reach far beyond what seems possible today and discover new cures for age-old afflictions,” Bush said. After he won Florida by a famously narrow margin – and thus was elected president despite losing the nationwide popular vote – Bush basically made good on his funding promise.

When George W. Bush was stumping as a “compassionate conservative” in the closing days of the 2000 presidential campaign, he went to Florida and repeated a campaign promise to double the funding for the National Institutes of Health.

“I will lead a medical moon shot to reach far beyond what seems possible today and discover new cures for age-old afflictions,” Bush said.

After he won Florida by a famously narrow margin – and thus was elected president despite losing the nationwide popular vote – Bush basically made good on his funding promise.

In fiscal 2000, the NIH spent $15.415 billion; in fiscal 2008, it spent $29.847 billion; and in fiscal 2012, it spent $32.781 billion. Even when adjusted for inflation, NIH spending grew from $20.55 billion in constant 2012 dollars in 2000 to $32.781 billion in 2012 – an increase of about 60 percent.

Now President Obama is complaining that the minor curtailments in anticipated federal spending that he signed into law in 2011 in exchange for a $2.4-trillion increase in the national debt will decimate the NIH’s research capabilities.

“Even President Bush’s director of the National Institutes of Health says these cuts will set back medical science for a generation,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Dr. Francis Collins, the current director of NIH, told Congressional Quarterly last week that the sequester requires the agency to cut $1.5 billion from its annual budget – which would still leave NIH about 50 percent bigger in real terms then it was 12 years ago.

Sequestration at NIH, said Collins, would mean “across-the-board damage to virtually everything.”

In fact, Congress needs to pay much closer attention to exactly how the now-bloated NIH is spending borrowed federal dollars.

In 2008, for example, Pete Winn of CNSNews.com did a story about the NIH spending more than $1 million on a project that studied hookah smoking in Syria. In 2009, Edwin Mora of CNSNews.com did a story about the NIH paying $2.6 million for a project that focused on the drinking habits of prostitutes in China.

Most recently, Liz Harrington of CNSNews.com reported that National Cancer Institute-funded researchers at the University of California at San Francisco had discovered that “astroturfing” by the tobacco industry had helped create the tea party movement.

Did America need these studies? No.

As President Obama hypes the impact of the sequester, Congress should begin aggressively investigating and exposing where taxpayers’ money has actually been going in recent years. Over the last three presidential terms, the growth in the federal government has been obscene.

In fiscal 2000, federal spending was 18.2 percent of gross domestic product and the federal government ran a surplus. In fiscal 2012, federal spending was 24.3 percent of GDP and the federal government ran a $1-trillion-plus deficit for the fourth year in a row.

It is true that much of the growth in federal spending is driven by entitlements – including the Medicare prescription drug plan, a new entitlement signed into law by George W. Bush. But, at the same time, Congress and the last two presidents have also driven up discretionary spending.

The National Institutes of Health is a good case study in how both parties have worked to expand that spending. Bush, a Republican, campaigned promising to double the size of NIH as a way of persuading voters in swing states like Florida that he was compassionate and ready to spend other people’s money to advance what he perceived to be their interests. Obama, a Democrat, has no intention of reversing the upward spending trajectory Bush endorsed and set for NIH.

Other than through the sequester – if they now let it go forward – Republican leaders in Congress have shown no will to turn things around.

They should let the sequester hit NIH and every other government agency. Then they should come back to Washington next Monday ready to demand far deeper cuts in federal spending as they begin exposing all of the ridiculous things the NIH and other federal agencies have been doing with money borrowed from generations of Americans yet unborn.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.