Or on their constituents or even themselves.
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher
For years Republicans and Democrats alike have touted the medical breakthroughs at Texas medical research institutions like MD Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine.
But after President Donald Trump announced a policy change at the National Institutes of Health last week that would slash federal funding for those Houston institutions by tens of millions of dollars, Texas Democrats find themselves alone in trying to stave off the cuts, at least publicly.
U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said she asked all members in the Texas congressional delegation to sign a letter to the Trump administration warning the cuts would “devastate medical research in our state.” The four-term congresswoman said while every Democratic member signed, not a single Republican House member agreed to do so.
“I am disappointed,” Fletcher said in a statement. “These cuts hurt our constituents. And these cuts undermine the very system of scientific research and groundbreaking advancements that we are so proud happen here in Houston.”
Texas Republicans have largely stayed quiet on the cuts, despite protest from medical institutions across Texas, which collectively received $1.9 billion in NIH funding last year.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, who was treated for Hodgkin lymphoma at MD Anderson, questioned the amount of funding U.S. medical research institutions were getting, while acknowledging the medical breakthroughs it had enabled.
“People travel from all across the world to our innovative cancer centers to receive top not treatment. MD Anderson is one of them, and they saved my life,” he said in a statement. “However, we are $36 trillion in debt and barreling toward a debt crisis. There is no reason the federal government should be paying 70% of a university’s administrative costs for research.”
Other Republican members did not respond to requests for comment Friday. This week many cheered on the administration’s wider spending cuts, carried out by Texas billionaire Elon Musk and staffers at his Department of Government Efficiency
“Elon is blowing the lid off DC’s deep corruption, and the left is LOSING IT!,” Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, wrote on X this week. “The real constitutional crisis? Decades of fraud, waste, and abuse—YOUR money stolen to keep the swamp alive.”
[…]
Roy speaks frequently of the life saying treatment he received there. And U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, wrote an op-ed in 2020 in which he praised MD Anderson for the care they gave his mother, who died from breast cancer at age 35, including enrolling her in an early clinical trial for the chemotherapy drug Taxotere.
“My mom knew that this clinical trial would mean a small extension on her life at best,” Crenshaw wrote. “She knew that Taxotere would not ultimately save her life, but that her trial would provide doctors like Peter Ravdin — who led the clinical trial — the scientific research they needed to improve the drug and save the lives of others.”
See here for the background. If you or someone you know is being affected, even as the initial order was halted in court, you should know who is on your side and who would be happy to throw you in the trash. Elections have consequences indeed. Josh Marshall has more.
We are a Red State. Jobs will be lost. Republicans bad, Democrats good. Do you buy groceries? I do. I pay insurance, and I budget. When Trump won, I told my wife that we were cutting spending by at least 15%, doing my part to make Trump’s second term as hard as possible. I don’t shop at Buk’ees or any other place that panders to Trump.
Let Trump be Trump and the Ketamine user his fixer.
“People travel from all across the world to our innovative cancer centers to receive top not treatment. MD Anderson is one of them, and they saved my life,” he said in a statement. “However, we are $36 trillion in debt and barreling toward a debt crisis. There is no reason the federal government should be paying 70% of a university’s administrative costs for research.”
How convenient for Rep Roy that the treatment that saved him was developed before he found it necessary to impose fiscal austerity. So we won’t be seeing you voting yes on the next tax cut for billionaires?
(Who am I kidding?)
There is not a debt crisis. We have a fiat currency. The reason for the cuts is to allow Turnip’s tax cut bill to use the budget reconciliation process so it can pass by a simple majority. And to punish scientists. A moronic political 2-fer.