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Republican Congress boosts NIH spending, rejecting Trump proposed cuts

Failure theater: The Republicans in Congress have given the NIH a significant boost in spending, rejecting both Trump’s proposed cuts and reorganization proposals.

Congress has approved a $2 billion raise, to $39.1 billion, for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a 2019 spending bill approved by House of Representatives and Senate negotiators last night.

As expected, the 5% boost matches the Senate’s proposed spending level and surpasses a $1.25 billion increase in a draft bill passed by the House. President Donald Trump’s administration had requested $34.8 billion for the fiscal year that begins 1 October. This is the fourth year in a row that NIH has received a substantial increase, after more than a decade of flat budgets.

Trump had also proposed shifting three Health & Human Service agencies into NIH. Congress ignored this.

This illustrates the bankrupt nature of the Republicans in Congress. Don’t believe them when they argue they want to limit government. They are lying. They pass tax cuts to make you happy and vote for them, then turn around and pour money we don’t have at their Washington friends.

This also illustrates the bankrupt nature of the American voter. We gobble up tax cuts, either ignore or celebrate Congress’s out-of-control spending, and then vote for the elected officials who do this.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • Cotour

    Doesn’t the president have to sign the spending increases?

    I suspect that after this particular mid term election and if the Republicans retain power in Congress that Trump will become much more aggressive in his defiance of Congress and their self serving ways.

  • Cotour: You can’t hear me, but I am laughing hysterically.

  • Cotour

    Woosh, right over my head. (?) Happy to hear that I have at least entertained you.

  • Col Beausabre

    Cotour, What you seem to be missing is that Trump is NOT a conservative (he was a registered Democrat most of his life). He doesn’t have a consistent political philosophy. So while he can back some conservative ideas, he rejects others. So your prediction he’s going to get tough on spending sounds more like a wish than a prediction. Unfortunately.

  • Cotour

    But who is the only one that is at least talking about actually dialing back some elements of out of control spending? Trump. (And yes, talk is cheap)

    Col Beausabre: Do you know that I live in NYC and am technically a registered Democrat? (I twice voted for Ed Koch and never for any other Democrat and had my affiliation changed for me by someone and I left it that way for certain NYC reasons. Many in NYC I found out do the same, especially if they are politically active, but they do not necessarily vote that way.

    And to add insult to injury I had to go the other day and vote in a Democrat primary for a person that was as close to a Conservative as you could get in New York State, Jeff Kline. It was highly embarrassing. And he lost, was taken out by young woman who is a “Social Democrat”. This is NYC. Sound familiar?

    So here are three examples of people from NY who have the “Democrat” label but are more technically Conservative than Democrat. Even the Zman would have to agree about the things that Trump is involved in and acting upon as being more Conservative than Liberal or Democrat.

    So it may sound or read funny but its not necessarily funny, to each his own.

  • Max

    Trump is a rich, play boy democrat until his image and branding needed an upgrade for his age and ambition.
    “”Shazam!””
    Fiscally conservative Republican is reborn. With the head on his shoulders for business, and a dream to be inmortal by making America great. He will make his place in history secure, to be known as the greatest president ever… This is fortunate for us, his ego for the spotlight will push him to ever greater accomplishment.

    He won’t sign the bill unless there is funding for the wall… Unless Congress negotiate something else he wants. In the end, the sheeple will get sheared because that’s what sheep are for.
    If he wants to build a wall, and make the Mexicans pay for it, then all he has to do is exercise his presidential right to extract by executive order, tax monies paid by foreign nationals (who are not citizens, who do not have a green card) who work here illegally under an assumed name and fake Social Security number. Divert the taxes that they and their accomplice employers pay on their behalf, to the “build the wall campaign”.
    Currently all of these gathered revenues by foreign nationals are separated at the Federal Reserve and placed in a “donation status” because there are hundreds of billions of dollars for the taking if they just look the other way. No paper trail, no legal status, no jurisdiction over foreigners by US government. Billions of laundered money, a slush fund to invest for black projects or power or propaganda, or whatever the parties want Santa to pay for… (sanctuary cities and states know this and keep two sets of books… States without income taxes receive no benefit)
    Yes, illegals file tax returns and receive checks. But keep in mind that their check comes from the treasury… Not from the federal reserve. What the reserve does with this money, no one knows. In it’s 100 year history the Federal Reserve has never been audited.
    The law is being broken, those who are receiving the money should not benefit any longer. If the illegal aliens want to stay in this country and Trump allows it, then he’s entitled to collect this money for the enforcement and the correction of the problems that it has caused… And build a wall to boot.
    30 million illegals +/-10 million … Times the amount of taxes I paid last year equals over $300 billion.

    My father introduced me to a retired member of the federal reserve board. I asked him about this subject in our short conversation and he said America has no right to tax citizens of foreign governments or to tell them what to do with their money, if they wish to donate it to us, we are grateful and allow them to do so without repercussions. Without harassment. If they fail to do so, then we invite them to leave. That is what ICE is for.

    Someone should tell this to the president, I’m sure he’ll be grateful for the information and he will know what to do. Of course there will be a war with the Federal Reserve and they have their own IRS agents army… It will also flush out those who are benefiting, like shining a light on the roaches.

  • wodun

    I don’t know about Trump’s inner political philosophy but his policies have been conservative and to keep his base happy, he has to be responsive to what they want. People are upset at the spending, even though they don’t want certain programs cut, like social security.

    After the last budget busting spending bill, Trump caught a lot of flack for not being fiscally conservative and he said that would be the last time the budget was done that way. Right now, congress is passing spending bills. Whether or not that leads them to be more responsible is tough to say but it is a change from the practice of using CR’s. Notice that the media isn’t covering the budget stuff except to note there is a deficit.

    We gobble up tax cuts because they help people and companies. Trump’s tax reform is a great policy and rather than tell the truth about it, the media lies. It is true that we are running a deficit, largely due to congress’ inability to pass real budgets causing automatic increases in spending, but not due to tax cuts. We know this because tax revenues keep increasing.

    Two things would go a long way to balancing the budget. One, freezing spending without the baked in automatic increases. Two, Rand Paul’s penny pincher plan to cut one penny for every dollar spent.

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