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 have to be frozen or lower—WAIT! NO, NOT THAT SPENDING. THAT SPENDING IS GOOD!
That’s the distinction between us and them. Republicans solely care when they’re straight 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 primary media outlet.
That junior senator is Katie Britt, who you may bear in mind from that creepy State of the Union rebuttal speech final 12 months (which was mocked so nicely 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 high 1% in recipients of federal analysis {dollars}—to the tune of $774.5 million. Taking a break from combating 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. After all they would 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 could 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 informed 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 positive 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 largest moocher states like West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alabama abruptly 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) received’t damage blue states as a lot as they are going to decimate crimson states. If Republican legislators and voters alike need these federal {dollars}, perhaps vote for the social gathering 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 straight. Republicans solely care when it does.
In the meantime, the College of Alabama might want to pinch pennies. Possibly they’ll begin with soccer coach Kalen DeBoer’s $10 million annual wage, which can add as much as over $80 million via 2031.
