DAVID MARCUS: De facto President Trump's handling of shutdown threat was a masterclass

[Nithavela]

There's a reason Trump/Musk talking points are focussed on the number of pages reduced....bragging about axing $190 Million dollars for treating children with cancer may not play so well.

"The initial compromise bill included language to ensure that providers of internet service to rural areas weren’t ripping off customers, to protect consumers from hidden hotel fees, to secure semiconductor supply chains, to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, even to prohibit deepfake pornography. All those were all gone in the successor bill.

But some of the hardest cuts to swallow involved medical research. In particular, advocates say, the revised funding bill delivered a devastating blow to the fight against pediatric cancer.

The slimmed-down version was stripped of language that would have allowed children with relapsed cancer to undergo treatments with a combination of cancer drugs and therapies. (Currently the Food and Drug Administration is only authorized to direct pediatric cancer trials of single drugs.) The bill also didn’t include an extension of a program that gave financial lifelines, in the form of vouchers, to small pharmaceutical companies working on rare pediatric diseases. It was also missing earlier provisions that would have allowed for kids on Medicaid or CHIP—that is, poor children—to access medically complex care across state lines."

Elon Killed the Budget Deal. Cancer Research for Kids Was Collateral Damage.

Advocates were celebrating the inclusion of money and provisions to help fund pediatric research. And then the tweets started.

open.substack.com

Thank you for protecting deepfake pornography, President Musk! Finally some policy I can get behind.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Again - in the media's now eight year rush to make the President look as bad as possible - this is a STOP gap - not the full budget. Look at the dates the funds expire - 10 months from now - Yes, congress can move on each of them.

Good grief - if the man came out tomorrow with a cure for cancer the headlines would read "Trump puts thousands of doctors out of work"

The President elect or the Congress, whose job it is to pass these bills?

As fyi, the last Congress to pass an annual budget bill on time - occurred in 1996.

SMH