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Gingrich breaks with GOP lawmakers over cuts to medical research
Newt Gingrich wants to boost federal funding for medical research, a stance that puts the GOP presidential candidate sharply at odds with Republican lawmakers intent on shrinking the federal deficit.
"I strongly opposed House Republicans when they tried to cut $1 billion from the [National Institutes of Health] budget earlier this year," Gingrich wrote in response to a questionnaire from the research advocacy group Research!America. "Cutting funds from the NIH may create short-term savings, but it will cost us dearly in the long run."
The comments are included in a national voter education initiative that tracks presidential candidates' stances on medical research. Only Gingrich and President Obama have answered so far.
The comments could hurt Gingrich with conservatives who are wary of his past support for government programs and for requiring that everyone carry health insurance.
House Republicans, by contrast, slashed NIH funding by $1.6 billion — about 5 percent below the president's request — in the spending bill they approved in February. During debt-ceiling negotiations with the Senate, they finally agreed to a more modest cut of $260 million through the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
The spending bill for fiscal year 2012, meanwhile, calls for a 1 percent increase in NIH funding, for a total of $30.6 billion.
Gingrich also used the voter education initiative to reiterate his support for greater investment in brain research to combat Alzheimer's and other diseases.
Overall Gingrich's answers to the questionnaire track closely with Obama's, except on the issue of embryonic stem cell research.
While Obama said he was "committed to supporting responsible stem cell research now, and in the future," Gingrich flat-out opposes using stem cell lines from discarded embryos.
"I strongly support adult stem cell research," Gingrich wrote. "I will oppose at every turn any process of destroying embryos."
