Abolish the NIH

The Washington Post ^ | July 2, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EDT | Scott Atlas

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In 1980, economist Milton Friedman said the National Institutes of Health should be abolished. Friedman said the same about another government research agency, the National Science Foundation. And when he was asked what the NSF should be replaced with, he replied: “Nothing.”

Whistleblower documents highlighted in a recent report showed what happens when private billions meet a public agency that can be influenced: Bill Gates’s foundation spent two decades steering the NIH research agenda toward its own priorities — with agency officials as willing partners. The NIH has become a government entity captured by special-interest groups — just as Friedman feared 46 years ago.

Look inside the grants at where taxpayer money actually goes. The NIH paid universities approximately $9.5 billion in fiscal 2026 to cover indirect costs such as facilities and administration expenses. These same universities accept grants from private foundations with little or no funds provided for overhead. The Gates Foundation caps its university overhead at 10 percent — a rate universities accept without protest. The disparity is easily explained: Private foundations say no, while the government readily spends other people’s money with no accountability. When the NIH attempted to impose a 15 percent cap in 2025, universities sued — and won.

This financial exploitation is compounded by political agendas, regardless of party. President Ronald Reagan’s administration delayed AIDS research funding; Reagan did not address the epidemic publicly until 1987, after more than 36,000 Americans had been diagnosed and nearly 21,000 had died. President George W. Bush restricted embryonic stem cell research on religious grounds. President Barack Obama reversed that ban by executive order. His administration created the NIH’s ideologically driven Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office in 2015.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: debttruth; sciencetruth

[Red6]

Couldn’t agree more.

Just get rid of them, period.

[ProgressingAmerica]

I mean, I would love to see it.

But it isn’t happening. We need to be realists. We don’t have an abolitionist president nor an abolitionist congress.

Abolishing the Department of Education was a 2024 campaign promise. Yep. Not abolished. No action at all.

[trebb]

Needs to be done - but I’m shocked to see it was a WaaaaPo article....

[SMARTY]

Can't happen too soon! THEN we'll get all the traitorous freeloaders OUT of academia!

I used to work with them, and a more lazy, self important, greedy bunch of old stoners you will never meet!!! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄😡

[Salman]

Were they the ones funding “gain of function”? Or was that one of the other graft outfits?

[OrangeHoof]

NSF = Insufficient Funds

Sometimes, you just have to read the label.

[Wuli]

Yes. The NIH is not needed. The research will be done with plenty of companies and academic research outfits.

If anyone things American interest in and investment in science would die without the NIH I would remind them of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palomar_Observatory

[bioqubit]

I totally disagree with the ill considered sentiments expressed here. Yes, the NIH needs reform, but destroying it is an incredibly disastrous idea.

As a biotech analyst for over 30 years I have seen the best and worst of these institutions. The NIH enables so much biomedical research to continue. Research is a cost center. Not everyone wants to pay for it. So, we need the NIH. Actually, we need a better NIH.

Covid has taught tough lessons about the phenomenal abuse of power. We damn well better fix it. It’s a tall order. Arguably, the NIH is a pillar of the deep state. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

So, rather than bitch and preach destruction, come up with answers that work.