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E.K. Hornbeck's avatar

Thanks for the Sunday show, giving Tim a break from his 7 days a week video grind!

First, Sarah, you cut us nerds to the quick saying "no regular person could ever follow" the nuances of "read only" access 😢 It's not so hard, if Musk's teenage ninjas can read the personal data of anyone in the system whether it's Treasury or HHS they've got their financial and health private information. They can't change it, but the point is to have it.

In regards to the "regular" people, I see in the last couple days that Medicaid and Medicare are next for DOGE

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-aides-search-medicare-agency-payment-systems-fraud-wsj-reports-2025-02-05/

which will scare anyone over a certain age. Social Security is soon to follow and should heavily increase the negatives of DOGE. They say they'll target "waste only" but the baby could easily be throw out with the bathwater.

Red states are starting to see that Health research cuts will have direct major impacts on their population, e.g. Senator Katie Britt (the Stepford wife from last year) is promising a special channel to RFK Jr to help Alabama out over NIH cuts:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bama-senator-howls-like-stuck-pig-after-she-sees-nih-cuts-impact-in-state

So the trickle down effect of Elon's meddling is starting, once Musk is really unpopular tying him to Trump is the next step. I just hope it's not too late.

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Ann P's avatar

Yes! My red state with a GOP governor and a GOP dominated legislature has a state university sponsored major biomedical research center that focuses on stuff like diabetes and Alzheimer’s/dementia. It gets zero state dollars and relies 100% on a combination of private donations and NIH grants. This new (it starts tomorrow!) NIH funding cut is going to be devastating. Will the governor get mad? Will the legislature get mad? Will either one of our Republican US Senators get mad?

And from what I’ve read, they’re toying around with the idea of making these NIH cuts retroactive, and thereby telling these research centers to return all the funds they received in the past. Good grief, (1) the money has already been spent, and (2) it’s a state university, it’s not Harvard with a billion dollar endowment. I will be calling the two Senators tomorrow and will be interested to see how they spin this. Both of them have so far voted “yes” on all the cabinet nominations. Will they let their own state get hurt? We’ll see.

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