The scientists ain't having any
Look at the impact of TrumpMusk's proposed federal funding cuts to research
(Cut to the chase? It’s $16 billion, and 68,000 lost jobs.)
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland-College Park (GO TERPS!), the University of Pennsylvania, and the Georgia Institute of Technology have studied TrumpMusk’s proposed cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for research into cancer, diabetes, dementia, heart disease, stroke, mental illness, and more. Their mission is to, from the website:
share how these proposed changes impact science, the economy, and healthcare.
They’ve used numbers from a public database of NIH grants based on a recent report, which found that every dollar invested in NIH generated $2.56 in new economic activity in 2024. To estimate the jobs lost if funding is cut, the scientists used the ratio of the number of jobs supported and research funds awarded in the most recent fiscal year. They also use Census data on where U.S. commuters live and work.
In other words, they’ve crunched the numbers and if you take the quiz (the tab is at the bottom of the home page) you can see the impacts on your own state and even your county. I won’t steal your fun, but in my state, Connecticut, the estimated loss is four times what I estimated.
One of the less-interesting things about these cuts is that this is not research that can be paused and then resumed when things settle out. Years will be lost and we will be decades picking up the pieces. Be sure to reach out to your elected officials.
You honestly, truthfully, cannot make up the absolute destruction this administration is bringing to America. And yet, his followers are 100% willing to go down with the ship. It’s utter madness.
Where the hell is Congress. This is total destruction. My good friend died of metastatic breast cancer almost two years ago, but I know ( and she knew it to) that cutting-edge research, new drugs — kept her alive for 12 years. She benefited from new drugs that came on the market every year and clinical trials that extended her life, which she lived to the fullest. Why are Republicans willing to do nothing and watch our medical research be destroyed by needless cuts.