Do me a quick favor…
Link to the NIH Reporter website HERE….
…and check out your state.
My state is Ohio:
And when I zoom in on my state, this helpful website tells me that federal NIH dollars are currently funding 2,423 medical research projects with….$1 billion, — with a B—, $263 million dollars.
Wow.
Then, when I focus on the Congressional district where I live (OH-01), I see that NIH funds 576 research projects, totaling just over $300 million in research:
A quick look at the University of Cincinnati’s website makes clear that a huge chunk of those funds go directly to UC:
I know from my time in office here that one of every 12 jobs in the Cincinnati region is supported by the University. The campus is essentially a second downtown for our thriving city, driving a huge chunk of the region’s economy. So these $300 million in NIH funds are paying directly for a large number of good jobs in the area, while supporting far more ancillary jobs and businesses.
But I also know that federal funds sent to the University of Cincinnati are paying for research work that is saving and extending lives across the nation and the world. Just a few examples over the years:
in 1990, UC “became one of the first four centers in the country to use gene therapy for the treatment of recurring brain tumors”
in 2002, “a UC team received international attention when it identified two genes that convey a risk of heart failure 10 times greater than that faced by people who do not carry the gene. By far, the greater risk was in African-Americans”
working with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, UC was recognized by Physics World for one of the top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2022—for discovering a cancer radiation treatment protocol (known as FAST-01) that reduces damage to surrounding tissue
UC is currently “develop[ing] a new technique to visualize where genetically modified immune cells go in the body after being administered to patients with cancer”
And of course, perhaps most famously of all, UC was where Albert Sabin developed the first oral polio vaccine, saving “untold millions around the world from paralytic polio and death.”
Now, in case you think I’m just bragging about Cincinnati—which I like to do—go back to that website and look at that map.
When I put my cursor over the Columbus area, I see even more NIH support—845 projects totaling over $432 million. Mostly Ohio State.
Cleveland area—754 projects, $413 million. Including Case Western Reserve and the Cleveland Clinic.
Again, all of these dollars mean jobs, businesses and stronger communities. And like Cincinnati, those dollars also mean lifesaving and life-extending research.
Now go back to the map and start looking at all the other states. Same story.
Billions in local economies. Jobs. Research. Communities, lifted nationwide. Lives saved, nationwide.
The Threat: Economic, Health and Community
Once you take that all in—all those jobs and breakthroughs—know that ALL OF IT is under threat from recent actions of the Trump administration.
To start, there’s the overall federal freeze in funds. And then there’s the Trump decision to slash billions from the NIH grant-making process (by specifically targeting indirect costs associated with NIH grants).
Why are these cuts so devastating?
As the lawsuit filed by 22 states to stop them points out: “they are real costs that the grant recipient must incur in order to carry out the research that the grant supports.”
For example, indirect costs include much of the back-office work that enables the research to take place, including support of “the facilities and infrastructure to conduct research and the personnel and offices that ensure the safety of human subjects and animals used in research, compliance with federal regulations, laboratory maintenance, and data storage and processing,” etc.
So if the Trump action takes effect, much of the work will simply stop. As soon as these cuts go into effect, they will trigger “large financial shortfalls immediately.” Across the nation, the costs “will ultimately hinder scientific progress and ultimately harm patients. It will impede progress on American medical, scientific, technical, and economic priorities; result in fewer jobs and slower economic growth; cede to other nations American companies’ competitive advantage as a catalyst of new industries; and threaten the nation’s long-term competitiveness against global adversaries.”
As one expert told me: the risk here to these and other cuts is “[t]he full destruction of the American science research system and the loss of the economic advantages that it brings, to China: [t]he US science research system (which is housed at US universities) and spawned Google and Intel and Silicon Valley, and which has caused the worldwide center of biomedical research to be located here.”
A researcher told Time the same thing: that the threatened cuts would be “the apocalypse of American science. This will basically change science as we know it in the U.S.”
For far more details on all this potential destruction, here’s a good article.
Fortunately, a district court temporarily stopped this cut from taking place in a ruling yesterday. Let’s hope that holds.
Widen the Lens
Now….much of the current discussion of the NIH cuts starts and ends with all I’ve just written.
But as bad as it all is, the expert I quote above also suggested to me that the NIH/research cuts alone are not the worst case scenario of what the Trump administration is undertaking.
The attack goes even further than that.
This person challenged me to widen the lens further to truly see it.
So I did…
Notice how, above, the largest recipients of these federal research dollars are universities. From the University of Cincinnati, to Ohio State, to Case Western, to Michigan, to Stanford, higher ed institutions are taking by far the biggest hit from these attacks on NIH funding.
As the numbers above make clear, those federal grants comprise an enormous source of overall higher education support.
Now let’s look at how else these same institutions are under attack.
Beyond health research—into other work these universities do, and how they operate.
Here in Ohio, as in Florida, Indiana and other states—along with now the federal government—the anti-DEI mania is fueling a wave of censorship and hysteria that threatens both research and academic freedom, including the teaching of everything from history and democracy, to environmental justice and climate, to law.
As historian David Blight wrote this week, the attack on universities currently taking place in states like Ohio “introduces government controls over the topics university professors may discuss in the classroom, banning such “controversial” topics as electoral politics, immigration policy, and marriage….This kind of government control over university faculty is more appropriate for authoritarian regimes, such as the Soviet Union, than a mature democracy like the United States, which is committed to the free exchange of ideas.”
(Thank you to the hundreds who showed up at the Ohio statehouse yesterday to testify against this bill. Here’s how you can take action).
At the same time, whether it’s Youngstown State or the New College in Florida, right-wing interests are also taking over boards and putting partisans (rather than academics) in key leadership positions.
And along with attacks on federal grants, the other major leverage point the federal government has over all these universities are their endowments, and how they are treated by the government. As a Senator, for example, JD Vance proposed increasing by 20-fold the tax on university endowments. Like the NIH cuts, such a step would deal another massive blow to the financial wherewithal of America’s universities.
Add it all up, and it almost appears as if the NIH cuts, the censorship, the board takeovers, and the threats to endowments are all part of a systematic effort to destroy the university and college system as we know it today….
Because they are!
“The Universities are The Enemy”
If you watch and read the words of people like JD Vance in recent years, and how they are mimicking autocrats like Victor Orban in their words and proposed/actual deeds, it becomes clear that that’s exactly what this is.
Yesterday, I watched a speech Vance gave a few years back to remind myself just how all-encompassing and virulent this attack is.
The name of the speech itself is a not so subtle hint at what is motivating these people: “The Universities Are the Enemy.” And the words that follow are equally blunt, far-reaching and hostile. Here is an assortment of what Vance tells this audience:
“We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities of this country.”
“So much of what drives truth and knowledge as we understand it in this country is fundamentally determined by, supported by and reinforced by the universities of this country. …. [W]e live in a world world that has been made, effectively, by university knowledge.”
“The universities do not pursue knowledge and truth. They pursue deceit and lies, and it’s time to be honest about that fact.”
He describes “[a]ll of the ways that our universities transmit…deceit and lies.”
“The universities in our country are fundamentally corrupt and dedicated to deceit and lies, and not to the truth.”
They are “committed to the some of the most preposterous dishonesties in the world instead of committed to the truth”
According to Vance, it’s at universities where young people “learn to hate the country.”
And they also contribute to “the fundamental lie of American feminism over the past 20 or 30 years is that it is liberating.”
Progressive ideology, he contends, “is reinforced, [] is given legitimacy, and [] is taught at our universities.”
“We are giving our children over to our enemies, and it’s time we stopped doing it.”
Until this happens, it will “make it impossible for conservative ideas to ultimately carry the day.”
And doing so “is a necessary component of our ideas ultimately carrying the day.”
Vance ends the speech by quoting the always inspiring Richard Nixon — “the professors are the enemy.”
The Orban Model
Yes, this all sounds like the rantings of a dictator wannabe. After all, as I wrote in a Kettering article previewing the risks to democracy in 2024, “[a] core element of a healthy democracy is a system of higher education that stands largely independent from the day’s politics. The erosion of academic independence is a vital step in the path away from democracy.”
More specifically, everything that Vance is saying and doing comes right out of the Victor Orban playbook, where Orban’s takeover of Hungary’s universities was a key part of his lockdown of power.
Vance directly embraces Orban as his role model on this front. According to Vance:
“the closest that conservatives have ever gotten to successfully dealing with left-wing domination of universities is Viktor Orbán’s approach in Hungary. I think his way has to be the model for us: not to eliminate universities, but to give them a choice between survival or taking a much less biased approach to teaching…
[W]hether it’s the incentives that you put into place, funding decisions that are made, and the curricula that are developed, you really can use politics to influence culture. And we should be doing more of that on the American Right.”
These comments and the speech above took place several years ago, as he ran for Senate. But Vance was previewing then precisely what is happening now: the NIH cuts, the censorship in states, the leadership takeover of institutions, and the threat of attacks on endowments.
They are all part of the “aggressive[] attack [on] the universities of this country” that Vance promised.
As described above, the collateral damage of that assault may be enormous— devastating countless communities, killing countless jobs, and costing lives in the short- and long-term.
But all that has to happen, according to Vance, “as a necessary component of our ideas ultimately carrying the day.”
Day 72—February 11, 2025
Even as Americans reel from the billionaire-led takeover of American government (with polls showing disapproval of both the direction and Musk himself), and courts stopping almost every effort in its tracks, Donald Trump yesterday signed an executive order further expanding the power of DOGE over our government.
Agencies are being ordered to work with DOGE to undertake “large-scale reductions in force” and limit hiring. Specifically, Musk and his team of little green men are being placed in the position of controlling all future hires to the federal government:
New career appointment hires must be made “in consultation with” DOGE;
Vacancies should not be filled unless DOGE approves.
To read the order yourself, go HERE.
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