The GOP Budget and Cancer -- Why New Research Is at Risk

The black plague was a boom to civilization during the middle ages. So many people died that labor was scarce, worker's pays tripled and quaddrupled, land was abundant and almost everyone could own their own land. People were no longer poor and starving. Maybe the republicans are taking their ideas from that era. Kill off all the old, poor, sick, and disabled, then watch the deficit fall, and everybody gets rich.

Larrynyrd - you are right on the mark, I am reposting your comment on my facebook page.

If we could get a small, low tax government, with no real labor Unions. No social safety net such as Minimum wage, food stamps or housing assistance , no Governmemt interference with any business such as pollution control or workplace safety, workers comp etc. The and Onlly then could We be HAITI. They have all that and it doesn't work no matter how many Fat drug addled radio talk show hosts claim it will. We need to raise taxes and pay our bills. There I said it, I didn't vaporize, I'm still standing here.

The GOP/Tea Party leadership have a habit of "shooting first and then aiming and speaking first and then thinking" (if they think). Apparently it is a habit carried over from the Bush Administration. There appears to be a lack of basic analysis of their decision making, i.e, cause and effect and root causes. The GOP has proposed cutting funds for WIC (the program that provides proper nutrition to poor expectant mothers). It is virtually axiomatic that poor nutrition produces premature infants. Those weighing under two pounds will require extraordinary and extensive neonatal care. Further, those infants/children will be subjected to far more illinesses throughout their teens compared to healthy infants. Depending on the mother's future economic status, the burden will fall on either the taxpayer or insured.
The GOP wants to cut funding for education. That is absurd in a period when the US trails numerous other developed (and not so developed) countries in science, math and language. If anything - more funding should be allocated in this area. Here again, we have to look at "root causes." Is it poor teachers, lack of family guidance, incompetent administrations? All factors have to be examined and action taken to find solutions. Cutting funds without analyis is not the route to take.
The GOP wants to virtually eliminate oversight of the financial sectors. For those of us who lost large sums of money due to the greed of Wall Street and the brokerage firms, more oversight would be welcome. While it would be nice if the financial sector policed themselves -- there is too much greed and dishonesty for that to happen.
These are only a few of the problems. They even extend to our foreign policy (both parties) that fail to look at the consequences of whom we support.

Wow! Who does support cancer killing millions annually? I don't. I saw what it did to my mother.
But here's the thing. We, the USA, are broke. We're broke at the federal, state, and local levels.
Everything must be questioned. Everything. From 12 carrier fleets, to unemployment for 99 weeks to free school lunches being eaten by kids with I-Phones. If we don't, the consequences will be enormous. This is about preserving a viable future for your children and grandchildren. I already got mine. Of course I'd also like extra with social security and a million dollar operation paid for by medicare. But if you lack the will to make the cuts now, your children will pay for it with a dimmer future. Ask any honest financial planner if he really thinks the next generation will have it better than their parents. That will be your answer.

I want Walter Shapiro, other commentators, and VOTERS to think or write in EVERY ARTICLE of this kind, 'and yet we gave the tope two percent (billionaires) a 700,000 DOLLAR tax break extension'. Or, we gave the banks who caused the fiscal crisis (and none went to jail) TRILLIONS of dollars to keep operating, and yet they are not lending (and there is no accountability, and only some of it came back to tax payers.

I strongly wish there to be a 'CONNECT THE DOTS ' awareness (ACTION-ORIENTED OUTRAGE) built up -- about where the money went -- that is behind these FOOLISH cuts that is and will go on creating unnecessary suffering and further American decline. Never mind the political posturing. I, like others, who love this country and the democracy we once had to a far greater extent KNOW that the USA has turned to into a PLUTOCRACY (government run for the benefit of the rich) . Win the future? The future is and will continue to move OUT of the this country.
It IS the economy, stupid, and we have been taken to the cleaners, there is 'something wrong with Kansas', meaning (too many vote against their interests as citizens and taxpayers --& swallow this Republican driven, spineless Democratic line -- be it anti-science, anit-working people & middle class quality of live, coupled with a sleeping press that does not connect the dots and in becoming propaganda, entertainment drivel, or given a President who's slogan 'change we can believe in' a pass. But then the Press is increasingly consolidated and owned by the like of Murdoch and the billionaires behind much of this anyway.

I read this column with appreciation. Please remember it is the duty of a Free Press to connect the dots, starting with the fact and getting to causes, not just consequences that are skin deep.

We as a nation are in trouble. Here is the problem, this man is wrong yet everyone thinks he is right. My wife is is an MD, Ph.D use to work at NIH, great place to play computer games. She spends almost all her time writing grants and barely has time for research. Grants when they are politically funded of course can't always go to the best percieved idea(then how would congressmen crow about bringing home research money) so they go all over the place, depending on political pull. If it were in the private sector, it would go to the best idea, unless of course you could lobby Congress for funds, which of course you can. You see the Lebertarians are right, but no one sees it because we think we have tried free markets, but free markets mean you cannot lobby for special advantage, we have never tried it, if we every did this country would be a paradise.

Sadly, Repubs don't even shock me anymore with their greed, ignorance and malice. Let's cut off cancer research and WIC but give more and more tax cuts to uber billioniares who haven't created a single job or even tried to stimulate the economy. Great. Thanks teabaggers.

A book was written back in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles, The Science Of Getting Rich. In it he mentions a person i believe he was the mayor or toledo Ohio, then," Beware of the competitive mind! No better statement of the principle of creative action can be formulated than the favorite declaration of the
late " Golden Rule" Jones Of Toledo:, "What I want for myself, I want for everybody. We have all lost site of careing, money drives everything, the real cancer is the allowing of lobbyist running our country, special interest group. Not since the 1950's has there been a cure for anything, polio comes to mind..We better grab our boot straps the ride over the next few years will be the roughest times ever... The bankers that were allowed to steal our homes, land, and send our jobs over seas, will be luckey to feed ourself....Let the real research people be able to use the cancer treatments for the good of all men,not just corporate greed.. Remember not so long ago when 10% was a good profit. Where is our leadership in this country......

The Republican Party is owned and controled by a handful of very, very Rich People. If your voting for Republicans lets hope your rich.