The Stupidity of Killing Biomedical Research

Donald Trump proposed a budget this week that will cut funding to NIH by nearly $6 billion, or 20% of its $31 billion budget. A cut of this magnitude would be devastating for biomedical research, and for the health of the nation.

This is colossally short-sighted, stupid and even cruel. The U.S. budget this year is $4.0 trillion, which means that the entire NIH budget is only 0.75% of the budget. A 20% cut to NIH, while incredibly damaging to medical research, would only reduce expenditures by 0.15%.