Proposals from both chambers of the US Congress, as well as comments made by the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump show that there is significant appetite to reform the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its US$47-billion research portfolio. What’s less clear is how this transformation will unfold; proposals have included everything from shrinking the number of institutes by half to replacing a subset of the agency’s staff members.
Cutting funds for health research is not very smart. Great progress has been made-- doubling life expectancy last century. Practical benefits from that effort make it a good investment.
Unless you take the mind set to let foreigners, the socialistical ones, who give away education, do all the research. Meanwhile, all that the US government spends on research can be used to give the “JCs” another tax cut.
There was an interesting discussion on Amanpour last night. The proposition was that the US erred in adopting “free trade” post WWII. Maybe, for reasons of national security, and economic security, the US should be more protectionist, as it was for most of it’s history? That way, needed products can be reliably produced here, rather than being dependent on the goodwill of foreigners.
Seems I recall, in “Free to Choose”, Friedman offered that, if other countries are willing to sell their material and labor cheaply, it is in our best interest to exploit them. Maybe it isn’t after all? Can a Nobel be revoked 40 years after it was awarded?
“Reaching $162 billion, industry accounts for nearly two- thirds (66%) of U.S. medical and health investment in R&D in 2020…Federal government investment accounts for one-quarter (25%) of all U.S. medical and health R&D at $61.5 billion…”
And some will tell you that $61.5B should be given to the “JCs” instead, as the “JCs” can buy whatever they want, from wherever in the world it is produced.
Let’s not forget, drug companies do drug development usually on targets revealed by academic research. That research is funded by grants frequently from govt programs like NIH and National Science Foundation.
This research is carried out at universities across the US. Govt funds the research programs and supports education and training. Many PhD candidates and post docs get paid while they learn with funds from these grants.