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ARMY OF CURES [1]

['Sabrina Haake', 'Chitown Kev', 'Chloris Creator']

Date: 2026-08-09  

By Don C. Reed

Medical researchers save lives, heal wounds, and ease suffering—but they cannot do their work without major financial backup.

To develop usefu therapies and cures, scientists depend on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest source of medical research funding in the world. (1)

It would be great if the Trump administration shared our enthusiasm. Unfortunately…

Example: three NIH budget figures: 2026, and 2027.

NIH Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 ($47.2 billion):

President’s FY 2027 Request ($41.4 billion):

House Appropriations Request FY 2027 ($48.8 billion): (2)

Notice the difference between the first ($47.2 billion) House Appropriations Committee figures, followed by the much smaller Presidential proposal ($41.4 billion)– as well as the final figure, ($48.8 billion) which includes money partially restored by Congress and the Courts.

Basically, Congress kept the funding flat, while the President requested an enormous reduction– $5 billion dollars! (2)

Why would the Trump Administration want to cut the budget so deeply?

We cannot know for sure, of course. But we can see who has the power, and therefore the responsibility. Republicans own the House, the Senate, the Presidency. and a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court—the levers of power.

Republicans, it should be noted, are the party of the rich, with access to staggering amounts of wealth. In the next Presidential campaign, they will likely outspend the Democrats two-to-one.

The Republicans’ largest donor is trillionaire Elon Musk. The richest man in the world, Musk could pay for the Presidential campaign by himself. He nearly did that the last time around, when he donated roughly $300 million to the Trump campaign. (3)

Whatever the odds, we must prevail: too much is at stake. Consider the National Debt, 90% of which (more than $4 trillion) is caused by chronic disease. (4)

But nothing saves money like cure. If we can fix a disease, we don’t have to pay for it any more.

Great steps forward are possible, especially when different programs wrk together. California’s magnificent stem cell program, (CIRM, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine), has over 100 clinical trials completed or in progress. Such research is crucial, especially in partnership with the NIH.

But am I being over-dramatic? How serious, really, is the cost of medical treatment? Listen to this.

“Health care costs are the number one cause of bankruptcy for American families today.” (6)

There are unexpected problems: like how the grant money arrives. Should it be just one big check, or in separate instalments?

That doesn’t seem important, at first, as long as the numbers are right? Actually, it makes a very big difference, which can reduce the rate of cure.

The Trump Administration wants a requirement that all grants must be paid for by forward funding, meaning all the money comes in one big chunk.

That’s great for one scientist– but it shuts off the money for other efforts. Forward funding is also damaging for new scientists; how are they to get started? And what about new ideas?

Think of someone you know who has a chronic (long-lasting or incurable) disease or disability—and trust me, you do know someone like that, probably several someones! 76.4% of all Americans have one or more chronic conditions, roughly 191 million. (7)

To take on the enormous challenge of chronic disease, and balance the influence of mountains of money, we need advocates, hundreds, thousands, millions of them, who will do the hard work chores of democracy— fighting for medical research. If we have that kind of people power, it won’t matter how much wealth the other side has.

But we need that peaceful Army–

An Army for cures.

https://www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/view/white-house-5-billion-nih-cut-fy2027-budget

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/9/800081759/community/army-of-cures/

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