The Moonshot program was the largest, organized effort by the U.S. government to find cancer cures. Congress voted it down.

Even though this would be a win for all Americans – and humanity – it apparently did not outweigh the politics of making a Democrat look good. This is the definition of party over country.

I’m a doctor.So is my mother. When she got cancer, I realized how little that mattered.

Republicans have stated budget cuts need to be made with an ever-growing debt. But where was this attitude when tax cuts for the wealthy were on the table in 2017? They don’t have to look at patients in the eye and break the devastating news that they have cancer. They don’t have to treat cancers that block intestines or drown a patient’s lungs in fluid.

  • ArbitraryValueEnglish
    423·
    3 months ago

    Unless you’re spending all your money on cancer research, you can always spend more on it. At some point, you have to draw a line and someone will accuse you of deliberately refusing to cure cancer no matter where you draw that line. It’s plausible to me that the line should be where the Democrats rather than the Republicans want it, and it’s even plausible that Republicans are acting in bad faith. However, this article presents no evidence for either claim.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      112·
      3 months ago

      At some point, you have to draw a line and someone will accuse you of deliberately refusing to cure cancer no matter where you draw that line.

      I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the $1T we spend on national security annually. Somehow, we’re always able to justify more than the year before.

      But $2.8B over ten years on an effort to improve health care treatments for one of the most deadly maladies in the US? My god! That’s over 3% of our Ukraine military aid budget! We need to draw a line somewhere!

    • ganksy@lemmy.world
      27·
      3 months ago

      I think that’s a pretty reasonable response. Maybe not so much that cancer in general is over funded but I’d be willing to bet a breast cancer cure probably isn’t any closer now than it would be with another billion. It’s definitely a bad look for the GOP though. I see a lot of We the people… bs bumper stickers with the f*** cancer! stickers.

      • Quereller@lemmy.one
        2·
        3 months ago

        Spending one billion on breast cancer drug discovery/ development would probably lead to one more drug which increases survival by 10-20%. Or if spend on fundamental research it would lead to a lot of additional knowledge. Which might lead in about 10 years (and a few billions more) to a few drugs which increase survival a further 30-40 %.