The potential government shutdown has cast a dark shadow over Washington, leaving anything and everything that receives federal funding as a potential target for cuts. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not been exempted. However, it has received support from a seemingly unlikely source – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.  As Politico’s Kate Nocera reports, Gingrich understands the important economic benefits from investing in medical research. She writes,

“Gingrich differentiated himself a bit from cut-first-ask-questions-later Tea Party Republicans, saying he helped balance federal budgets in the 1990s through a combination of smart reductions and targeted funding increases to critical research agencies that help improve care and contain costs long-term, the Institute of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Gingrich said he was “deeply opposed” to the proposed billion-dollar cuts to the NIH and while the medical center needed bureaucratic reforms, investing in research now would save incredible amounts of money in the future – especially relating to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”

View the full article here.