Public goods are things we all need and benefit from even if we don’t personally use them, things such as education, public transportation, the safety net, water, clean air, the justice system. And if all means all, for those types of public goods that will only happen if we do them together, that means the government.
Government is behind nearly every major innovation and discovery our nation has experienced, from the Internet to the covid-19 vaccine, from GPS and MRIs, to the Moon landing. In 2010, the federal Department of Energy even lent a budding tech company named Tesla $465 million to establish an electric car-building plant in California.
It would seem a no-brainer to include in a list of what government ought to be involved in is another moonshot: the drive to cure and effectively treat cancer. Every American knows someone who has cancer, and almost every American loves someone who has or has had cancer. And no one scientist, no one lab, no one research center can come close to ending cancer alone.
“Cancer cannot be conquered without sustained federal investment for biomedical research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI),” says the Association for Clinical Oncologist (ASCO). “For 50 years, federal funding of NIH and NCI research has driven every major advancement in cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, and fueled breakthroughs in other diseases. This research fills urgent, unmet needs such as studies focused on prevention and screening, rare cancer treatments, and the effectiveness and safety of treatments.”
But, like cancer itself, DOGE budget-slashers didn’t discriminate.
The budget for the National Cancer institute went from $7.221 billion in 2024, to $4.53 billion for 2026, a slash of $2.69 billion.
The super-wealthy who supported these cuts don’t need SNAP, or Medicare. They can buy acre after acre to make their own park lands. They can amass private book and art collections to enjoy with their friends. They can send their children to elite private schools. They can separate themselves into their own exclusive enclaves. But the most secure gate of any gated community can’t keep cancer out. “All means all” means them, too–and we should all be committed to the cure.
Donald Cohen
Executive Director