If Democrats have discovered something from Republicans and their voters through the first chaotic weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, it’s that authorities spending is horrible, the worst, simply out-of-control, and it should be frozen or reduce—WAIT! NO, NOT THAT SPENDING. THAT SPENDING IS GOOD!
That’s the distinction between us and them. Republicans solely care when they’re instantly affected, and now it’s Alabama’s flip to undergo the implications of their lopsided 65-34 vote for Trump in 2024.
“Alabama’s junior U.S. senator said she will work with President Donald Trump’s health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to ‘ensure our nation remains at the forefront’ of innovation, research and care after funding cuts announced Friday night by the National Institutes of Health,” reported AL.com, Alabama’s most important media outlet.
That junior senator is Katie Britt, who you may keep in mind from that creepy State of the Union rebuttal speech final yr (which was mocked so effectively by Scarlett Johansson on “Saturday Night Live”). It seems Trump’s funding cuts to the NIH will deeply have an effect on the College of Alabama system.
Freedom-loving Alabama’s college system relies upon closely on federal {dollars} (from blue states, thoughts you). In actual fact, the College of Alabama-Birmingham bragged that in 2023, it was among the many prime 1% in recipients of federal analysis {dollars}—to the tune of $774.5 million. Taking a break from preventing socialism, the college bragged that “This milestone marks a $247.5 million increase in funding over the past five years and a 73 percent growth over the past nine years.”
However hey, maybe I’m being unfair. Universities are bastions of pointy-headed elitist intellectuals. In fact they might love issues like “science” and “medicine” and “research” and socializing these prices—all issues that fashionable Republicans supposedly despise and oppose. So we will assume that the state’s all-Republican congressional delegation can be cheering the cuts, proper? Isn’t this what they voted for and supported, in any case?
“Every cent of hard-earned taxpayer money should be spent efficiently, judiciously, and accountably—without exception,” Britt advised AL.com. “While the administration works to achieve this goal at NIH, a smart, targeted approach is needed in order to not hinder life-saving, groundbreaking research at high-achieving institutions like those in Alabama.”
Ah sure, the analysis in Alabama that’s life-saving and groundbreaking and should not be hindered, in contrast to all that different inefficient analysis that’s funded haphazardly in all the opposite states with all the opposite packages. I’m certain Britt’s concern has nothing to do with the truth that the College of Alabama is the state’s largest employer, proper?
It’s so bizarre that the most important moocher states like West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama instantly love socialism—so long as the {dollars} are spent on them and nobody else. And Alabama, the eighth-biggest moocher state within the nation which gobbles up twice as a lot in federal funds because it pays in taxes, actually must be taught a lesson. Trump’s draconian cuts (instigated by his co-President Elon Musk and his shady DOGE cabal) gained’t damage blue states as a lot as they may decimate purple states. If Republican legislators and voters alike need these federal {dollars}, possibly vote for the get together that believes in sharing the wealth and uplifting everybody?
Which brings us again to the distinction between us and them: We’re able to empathy, even when one thing doesn’t have an effect on us instantly. Republicans solely care when it does.
In the meantime, the College of Alabama might want to pinch pennies. Perhaps they’ll begin with soccer coach Kalen DeBoer’s $10 million annual wage, which can add as much as over $80 million by way of 2031.
Marketing campaign Motion
