Wednesday, February 04, 2026

Dems just handed RFK Jr. billions more than he asked for.

Lawmakers rejected huge health cuts President Donald Trump requested. Kennedy's diverting the funds to pet projects and red states.

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... Democrats counted it as a win Tuesday when President Donald Trump signed a law providing $20 billion more for the agency that is the world's largest health research funder than Trump requested.

Democrats' victory could prove pyrrhic. Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his National Institutes of Health director, Jay Bhattacharya, have promised to spend the money, but not necessarily on projects Democrats will like.

They have already begun rerouting millions in discretionary funds to studies on autism, which Kennedy believes is caused by vaccines. They've cut support for studies of health disparities related to race or gender, and research on transgender people. They've withheld funds to pressure universities to change policies on campus protests, faculty hiring and admissions. And now they plan on shifting more money to red states that used to go to blue.

"I have no illusion that this bill alone will stop Secretary Kennedy's nonstop, misinformed attacks on our health system," Sen. Patty Murray of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told POLITICO. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-02-04 02:20 AM

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