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The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

sensible-med.com

131–140 of 340 posts

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#131
post #29

[flagged]

Citations needed. All the citations please.

The director of the NIH testified to Congress that they funded gain of function research in Wuhan:

https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-nih-repe...

The OIG also made clear the NIH and EcoHealth did not have proper oversight:

https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2023/the-national-institutes...

Edit: I missed the bit about the funding being specific to COVID 19. The CIA endorsed the lab leak hypothesis with low confidence, but I'm not sure that there's hard evidence that this particular funding corresponds directly with a particular strain that is believed to be what became COVID. If it was, I doubt any evidence that would prove it still exists.

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#132
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He campaigned on doing exactly these things

When did Trump pledge to destroy the NIH? He did also specficially disavow Project 2025 and is now enacting a whole bunch of it.

Right here: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHA...

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#133
post #76
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when the majority of people who decided to vote voted for the person You're not wrong. However the portrayal of a mandate is a bit of a media fiction. He didn't have notably more votes than any other recent president.

But the people who did vote for him explicitly voted for all the stuff he's doing right now. Nothing that he's currently doing is surprising , except maybe for the fact that a politician actually followed through on so many campaign promises.

I disagree. In particular, the complete disrespect with which he and Elon are going about "cutting costs" and the way he's handling Ukraine would likely have lost him the election were they known beforehand.

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#134

I work at a medical device company and I have heard that the people at the FDA we used to deal with are gone. the whole department. This is just nuts. I am totally in support of looking into efficiencies but the way they are going about it is totally destructive. Trump will be most impactful president in a long time. Domestically and internationally. They are tearing down everything we relied on for decades.

When covid shutdowns killed the hospitality industry, the workers found new careers and when things opened up again there was a huge labour shortage. Even in couple years if things are restored, who will want to return when they know the next government could just come in and pull another hatchet job.

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#135
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not clear what good the midterms can do. It appears likely that the Supreme Court will hold that the president has the power to make these cuts regardless of any laws passed by congress. And even if he didn’t have that power already, he cannot be prosecuted for any official act, and he can pardon his subordinates at will. Beyond that, any action taken by congress is going to be reliant on individuals in the exec…

> roughly half the country is ecstatic about what he is doing A number of his actions are wildly unpopular. The Jan 6th Pardons, and his pro-Putin agenda. His polling is historically poor for a month into a president's term, and there are large protests around the country. In another month, his polling will be completely underwater.

Realistically, that won’t matter. He can’t be reelected, so he’s free to do as he likes, irrespective of public opinion.

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#136
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Senate represents sovereign states.

yes it does. The house does not. The senate was always set up to artificially prop up smaller (by population) states. The House was not. But we've artificially capped the House. Now they both favor lower population states.

Those states would never have signed onto the constitution without the senate. It’s not ‘artificial’. It’s a core part of why the USA came to be.

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#137
post #128
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did Trump pledge to destroy the NIH? He did also specficially disavow Project 2025 and is now enacting a whole bunch of it.

Remember when it came out that Project 2025 was going to be the playbook? And Trump disavowed it but all evidence pointed to the contrary? And our priors pointed to him not being inclined to tell the truth? That's when we knew this would happen.

Yes, those of us paying attention knew that when he disavowed Project 2025 he was talking nonsense. But OP said Trump "campaigned on doing exactly these things". He didn't. He campaigned on literally disavowing these things.

"we knew this would happen" !== "he campaigned on doing exactly these things"

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#138
post #126
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mechanism seems to rest on the principle of separation of powers - Congress is empowered both to write the laws, and to remove presidents. That means that there can't be a major misalignment between Congress and the executive, because if Congress thinks the president is really out of line they can boot him. It is quite a sophisticated set-up, really. You'd think in principle that the courts would decide when the…

The problem is that, through the pardon power combined with immunity from prosecution, the president can shield the entire executive branch from any obligation to execute on the laws that congress writes. It effectively neuters congress and prevents it from making any permanently effective law. Enforcement is instead left to the whims of the current congress and president at any time (who could be highly partisan Dem…

Maybe you should have been mad about preemptive pardons with the last guy?

I swear I can not prepare myself anymore for the sheer hypocrisy that is about to happen in four years! You know it’s going to happen, but my issue is the theatre of it all.

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#139
post #2

Practically speaking, when the majority of people who decided to vote voted for the person applying these policies, what mitigations are left? The courts are themselves slow and ultimately roll up to allies of the despot. People say that the midterms are crucial, but the midterms are only likely to be won if Democrats truly unify and apply winning strategies. Sadly the only winning strategies now seem to involve tell…

> Practically speaking, when the majority of people who decided to vote voted for the person applying these policies, what mitigations are left? As the article states, these actions are illegal and violate the US constitution. If "the people who decided to vote" expressed this decision, that decision would be implemented by an act of Congress to alter or eliminate these rules. Congress up until now passed no such law…

[deleted]

Re: The NIH is being slashed and burned, not "reformed"

#140
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did Trump pledge to destroy the NIH? He did also specficially disavow Project 2025 and is now enacting a whole bunch of it.

Right here: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHA...

This is my point, he specifically disavowed Project 2025 while campaigning.
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