Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Bemoans Cuts In Federal Cancer Funding

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Feted at the opening of the MIT Koch Integrative Cancer Institute on Friday, $100-million donor David Koch decried Republican cutbacks in federal cancer research funding. The American Cancer Society said the proposed $1.6 billion cut in funding for the National Institutes of Health in the House budget would "set back the longstanding national effort to conquer cancer." The cuts, supported by the Tea Party Republicans Koch helped elect, greatly dwarf the private support Koch has offered for cancer research, which amount to about one percent of his vast petrochemical wealth:

Let me conclude my remarks by asking those of you here today who have the means to do so to give generously to the Koch Institute.

The National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute in particular are facing serious cutbacks in their funding due to the massive deficits the federal government is incurring

. If the cutbacks happen, it will significantly diminish the amount of research that can be carried out at the Koch Institute. I ask you to do all you can to maintain the superb research at the Koch Institute at its maximum level.

Remarkably, Koch does not admit his own culpability. After decades of political advocacy for tax cuts on the rich and support for deficit-creating Republicans, Koch has miraculously become a deficit hawk now that a liberal is president. The Koch brothers' Cato Institute pooh-poohed deficit spending concerns during the Bush years,

promoting Bush's deficit-ballooning tax cuts

in 2003 and telling Americans to "

focus on growth, not deficit

."

The threat to federal funding for cancer research is a direct consequence of Koch's toxic politics. Koch, his advocacy groups, and the Tea Party politicians he has helped reach office, are both anti-government and anti-science. Koch's real priorities entirely fit his personal interests as a petrochemical billionaire, rather than the societal goals of deficit reduction and public health he supposedly shares:

– Koch, a septuagenarian billionaire, supports

eliminating the estate tax

, which would add

$1.3 trillion

to the deficit.

– Koch, one of the world's

top greenhouse polluters

, opposes reducing the federal deficit and improving public health by establishing a

price on carbon emissions

. A carbon tax or a cap-and-trade market could reduce the federal deficit by

$300 billion

over ten years and even more in following years.

– Koch, whose petrochemical companies are among America's top toxic polluters, opposes the regulation of carcinogens like

formaldehyde

and

dioxins

. Koch's astroturf group Citizens For a Sound Economy spent millions to

fight tobacco regulations

in the 1990s.

– Koch

opposes

the Affordable Care Act (although he'll

take its money

). This landmark legislation will dramatically improve public health and reduce the federal deficit by

$100 billion

over ten years and by $1 trillion in the following decade.

– Koch's companies include oil interests, financial trading, and offshore tax havens. Koch's advocacy group Americans For Prosperity opposes ending

oil industry subsidies

, closing Wall Street tax loopholes, and closing offshoring tax subsidies that are worth

$280 billion

.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) offered an amendment to

restore funding for NIH

, paid for by reducing gas and oil subsidies to companies like Koch Industries. David Koch, Americans for Prosperity, and the many conservative politicians who were the recipients of his largesse failed to support Markey's budget-neutral effort.

"Aside from

ideologically pure libertarians

who probably think that Thomas Jefferson went too far with the Louisiana Purchase," Politics Daily's Walter Shapiro wrote about the federal cancer cuts, "no one believes that battling cancer should be left to the private sector and the vagaries of the profit motive." That is exactly what David Koch — a man who built his fortune on toxic chemicals — believes.

The best thing that Americans could do to support the fight against cancer is to reject Koch's war on public health.

http://wonkroom.thin...ch-cancer-cuts/

[Ban Hammer 13,403]

so he's still a bad guy. got it.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

huh. I thought spending too much broadened the deficit and added to the debt. I never knew it was the evil Koch brothers.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Yep...cut Soc. Sec., cut Cancer research, but don't cut defense spending...

Edited March 7, 2011 by Why_Me

[Dan and Judy 614]

Cancer is the enemy within.........................or is that the Democrats????

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Private donations can fund cancer research. Perhaps it's time they start asking for some free ad space/donars instead of relying on the taxpayers?

As far as defense spending goes? Bring home all the troops overseas we can and hope to god they are able to find work at home. Leave all Naval spending intact though.

[Dan and Judy 614]

. Leave all Naval spending intact though.

I'm even against trimming Naval hair