Pirate's Cove

This is Fascist!

‘The purpose of the rule is fascism’: scientists fight back against planned Trump research cuts

See!

While waiting to board her flight home at Ronald Reagan Washington national airport recently, Colette Delawalla was reviewing a list of possible impacts from a proposed Trump administration rule on controlling federal money, including grants for research.

Delawalla, the founder of the group Stand Up for Science, had just completed a three-day visit to Capitol Hill, where she met one by one with more than 30 members of Congress, part of a full-court press the organization has launched in recent weeks, sounding the alarm on the office of management and budget (OMB) proposal.

A mother of a toddler, she stopped and thought about the listed example: a clinical trial under way meant to address the issue of parents who become suicidal after an infant death. The trial would likely be made illegal under the new rule, since it includes the sorts of international collaboration the rule prohibits.

It sounds more like the rule is meant to keep all the taxpayer money from flowing out of the country where it can’t be tracked, and ends up basically as slush money.

The rule, proposed by OMB director Russ Vought on 29 May, would place all research and other federal grants under the control of political appointees, rather than scientific or subject-matter experts.

Writing on her Substack, former National Institutes of Health (NIH) program official Elizabeth Ginexi quoted the rule as prohibiting anything that “promote[s] anti-American values”.

“The rule also requires that discretionary awards must ‘… demonstrably advance the president’s policy priorities,’” she added.

Um, why would we fund anything that is against America and American values? Oh, right, so the money can be heavily skimmed off.

In other words, said Delawalla, it would create a “$1.5tn slush fund” under Trump’s control. “The purpose of the rule is fascism,” she told the Guardian.

“It would dismantle the US science ecosystem – but also all federal discretionary grants,” added Delawalla, on the phone from her home in Decatur, Georgia. “It’s huge.”

How is this fascism? She never really explains, it’s just a word she throws around. The Executive Branch has every right to control the taxpayer money it is spending. Hell, they have an obligation and duty to safeguard the money and see that it is spent wisely, something that has long gone out the window.

One veteran Democrat in the House who she preferred not to name told her “you’re just protesters” and that “the executive branch should have the right to cancel grants”.

I’m betting he also told her “go solicit money from the private sector. But, you are going to have to show a return on investment, and you cannot skim off the top.”