2017 - Massive cuts to science and medicine in Trump budget https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5468112/

The budget proposed by United States President Donald Trump calls for “massive cuts” to spending on medical and scientific research, public health and disease-prevention programs, and health insurance for low-income Americans and their children. It has drawn intense criticism from many corners, including scientists, physicians and politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties. The only good thing about this “horror” of a budget, according to one pundit, is that it will likely get “eviscerated in Congress.”

Under the proposed budget, formally delivered to Congress yesterday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would see its annual budget shrink 18% from $31.8 billion to $26 billion. This includes cuts to the National Cancer Institute ($1 billion), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute ($575 million), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ($838 million).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would lose 17% of its budget, a cut of $1.2 billion. This news prompted former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden to take to Twitter and rebuke this “assault on science” that will “devastate” programs that protect Americans from many deadly conditions, including diabetes, heart attacks and strokes. He noted that the cuts would give the CDC its lowest budget in 20 years and lead to an increase in illness and deaths.

Others cuts include $776 million to the National Science Foundation, a funder of scientific research, and a 31% reduction in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which includes a $129-million cut to the enforcement of programs that support clean air and water. According to Erik Olson, director of public health for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the proposed cuts would be a “machete chop to most of the major body parts at EPA” and would directly affect public health.

There has been particular scorn heaped on the budget’s plan to cut $610 billion over 10 years from the Medicaid program, which provides health insurance to 74 million low-income Americans. This would be in addition to the $880-billion cut already suggested in the Republican’s health care plan. These reductions would see Medicaid’s budget drop by nearly half by 2027.