Wednesday's CBS Evening News with Katie Couric featured another "The federal government is our only hope" segment, this time focusing on the "war on cancer." Couric introduced the segment by arguing that cancer therapies were being thwarted because of "funding cuts that could delay or completely derail promising advances in the war of cancer."
The story, by CBS correspondent Wyatt Andrews, featured only one member of Congress, Iowa's Senator Tom Harkin, who echoed Couric and claimed that the "war on cancer" is in jeopardy due to war in Iraq. The "money" quote:
HARKIN: When you're spending $8 billion a month in Iraq, it's very tough to get the money for cancer research.
Of course, CBS didn't bother to find anyone to counter Senator Harkin in their segment. In reality, defense spending, together with spending on homeland security, only accounts for one-third of all new spending since 2001. There are plenty of places in the federal budget that can be streamlined and/or cut to find the necessary funding. Another unmentioned threat to progress in the "war on cancer" are the regulatory and congressional roadblocks that prevent new cancer-fighting drugs from reaching patients.
The segment's presentation as a whole implies that the only sources of funding for cancer research is from the federal government, ignoring the efforts of non-profit foundations such as St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for pediatric cancers, and the research powerhouses of major pharmaceutical companies.
A transcript of the entire segment:
KATIE COURIC: Coming up with better therapies to treat cancer takes research, and research takes money, but according to the nation's top research centers, nine out of ten grant applications are rejected. The reason, funding cuts that could delay or completely derail promising advances in the war of cancer. Here's Wyatt Andrews.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WYATT ANDREWS: It was 36 years ago when President Richard Nixon committed the federal government to what he called a war on cancer. ‘If we can split the atom,' he told Congress, ‘we can cure this disease.'
RICHARD NIXON: Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal.
ANDREWS: Today, though, the nation's top scientists say that commitment is slipping.
DR. BOB CLARKE: We're trying to understand why breast cancer behaves the way that it does.
ANDREWS: Dr. Bob Clarke, a leading researcher at Georgetown, is studying why breast cancer recurs, but Clarke says his federal grant for the study was cut and that most cancer scientists are being asked to cut 30%.
ANDREWS: You submit a grant and the National Cancer Institute says, ‘We love it but cut it 30%?'
CLARKE: Yes, that's about correct. The impact is that you can't do the studies the way you want to do them.
ANDREWS: At the National Cancer Institute, where most basic cancer research gets funded, the budget had been virtually flat since 2003, with the White House this year proposing a $78 million cut. The human cost this year - 3,000 fewer patients will be in clinical trials.
CLARKE: If we do fewer clinical trials, fewer new treatments will come forward and be available to everybody.
ANDREWS: Still, the war on cancer has brought progress. Cancer-related deaths, at 554,000 per year, are going down. However, cancer survivors like Lance Armstrong argue you don't quit when you're ahead, especially when a half million dead is still a horrible number.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: That's 9/11 every two days. If they drop that bomb every two days, I'm telling you, this country would pay attention.
ANDREWS: In Congress, Senator Tom Harkin has co-sponsored a bill to increase all medical research, including funds for cancer.
TOM HARKIN: We're fighting like the dickens.
ANDREWS: The senator, who's lost four of his five siblings to cancer, blames the budget cuts on Iraq.
HARKIN: When you're spending $8 billion a month in Iraq, it's very tough to get the money for cancer research."
ANDREWS: 36 years into the war on cancer, and more patients are being cured than ever, but the white-coated front line soldiers say they're being slowed at a critical time in the battle. Wyatt Andrews, CBS News, Washington.
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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Why don't Harkins and friends
March 29, 2007 - 16:30 ET by GalvanicWhy don't Harkins and friends just steal the funds out of the Social Security money to make up the difference? They've done that before.
Blah... blah.... blah... blah
March 29, 2007 - 16:35 ET by bigtimerBlah... blah.... blah... blah... and blah!
Surprised they chose to quote President Nixon...when it suits the leftists..as usual.
Lord I wished these critters would please get a life.
It's hard to decide: Who's
March 29, 2007 - 16:41 ET by kathleenirishIt's hard to decide: Who's serving up the bigger load of bollox today? Tom Harkin or Al Frankenphony. Either way, the Media piles it on with a side of total bull shite. I'm getting whiplash from all the head shaking I do these days!
"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere" -Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, 4th Islamic Caliph
Hi Kath!Boy are you right...I
March 29, 2007 - 16:49 ET by bigtimerHi Kath!
Boy are you right...I am getting prepared for one of those snap-on neck braces!
These people never stop...I have never, ever seen or heard anything like it!
Can you imagine it getting worse...we have so long to go yet before the next election...I am about worn out with the leftist absolute bullshite!
NON-STOP they go forever and ever and ever...
Hey, how's it going, BT?
March 29, 2007 - 19:11 ET by kathleenirishHey, how's it going, BT?
Pretty good kath...except for
March 29, 2007 - 19:27 ET by bigtimerPretty good kath...except for that neck thing we seem to both have... caused by leftists and my local IP carrier getting sabotaged lately....lol!
Getting ready for the really really BIG Show here pretty quick!
This whole report reeks of
March 29, 2007 - 17:41 ET by Dave in TexasThis whole report reeks of clever wording and cherry picking designed to lead you to a conclusion that's different from reality.
...the budget had been virtually flat since 2003, with the White
House this year proposing a $78 million cut. The human cost this year -
3,000 fewer patients will be in clinical trials.
What does "virtually flat" mean? Why don't they just show the numbers? Is that $78 million cut really a cut, or is it a cut in something that was orginally proposed, and in reality the final number will still end up being higher than what they got in 2007? How many patients will be in clinical trials? How does that number compare to previous years?
And why is the emphasis only on federal funding? What is the total amount being invested in cancer research, including private charities and research and development projects at companies? How does that amount compare to previous years?
You know the truth of most of
March 29, 2007 - 19:09 ET by kathleenirishYou know the truth of most of the claims of 'cuts'. They're only 'cuts' in proposed funding amounts. The MSM spins and spins.
"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere" -Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, 4th Islamic Caliph
Come on guys. Cancer is soooo
March 29, 2007 - 19:18 ET by Roger the ShrubberCome on guys. Cancer is soooo 1990. We got sexier incurable ailments out there like AIDS, Bird Flu, & Mad Cow...
After 36 years and spending b
March 29, 2007 - 19:31 ET by MidAmericaAfter 36 years and spending billions of dollars on the "War on Cancer" and we still haven't a cure!
I say it's time we cut our losses and redeploy to safer places like pattern baldness and nail fungus.
Billions more and another 3
March 30, 2007 - 10:05 ET by MightyMouthBillions more and another 36 years later... there still wont be a cure. Why? Because there's no profit in the cure, but there is profit in the "research" (for the researchers). Why would a drug company find a cure for something that will reduce it's bottom line? Or researcher find the cure to put themself out of a job? I say, put up a Billion dollar "prize" to the first entity to cure cancer and let them pay for their own research. Good idea, right?
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Sorry to get negative for a m
March 30, 2007 - 22:51 ET by dahliatraversSorry to get negative for a minute but you and MidAmerica read my mind, Mighty. Decades and multi billions later and all they came up with is a treatment that's worse than the disease?? I have high admiration for people who accept chemo and radiation treatment. Most cancer cure research is going to turn out to be, essentially, a money-making scam and that is disgraceful
You tell em Harkin. After a
March 29, 2007 - 20:55 ET by GregEYou tell em Harkin. After all, the United States as an Islamic theocracy will fund cancer research well. The faster you help get us there, the better for cancer research.
But then again, that's a point at which people would prefer cancer to the theocracy over their heads daily.
Day 1479 of America Held Hostage in Iraq
March 29, 2007 - 21:44 ET by BillAdkinsThank you George W. Bush for delivering the biggest military/strategic/foreign policy Blunder in America's history. Harkin has it right - Bush isn't part of the solution, he is the problem.
I used to think Jimmy Carter was the worst president in history - then along came George W. Bush.
Tom Harkin Just Makes Excuses
March 29, 2007 - 21:51 ET by emjem24It seems that these days, every politician from Harkin to some of our favorite RINO's likes to blame things that go wrong on the Iraq War. It's a convenient excuse.
I would like to ask Harkin a few questions: How's that War on Poverty going? It seems to me that we still have poverty in the Apalachians which hasn't been stamped out yet. How's that Education Reform going? As far as I know, each and every new eduation initiative from JFK to Clinton has gone no where. Our kids (after elementary school) are some of the dumbest in the world. It's quality not quantity that matters.
Yes, cancer research takes money. How about siphoning some of it off from the stem cell research and giving it to cancer research. Cancer kills more people than Alzheimer's does (and I'm saying this as one who lost a family member to Alzheimer's disease).
It's easy to make excuses and blame cuts in funding on the Iraq War. Let's look at it this way...there will be nothing to cure and research if we're all obliterated by a terrorist nuclear attack.
The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer. Air Force Motto
emjem says: When your brain's stuck on liberalism it self-destructs.
Dickens
March 29, 2007 - 22:16 ET by Jerry MackWhy didn't Katie ask Harkin why he was having to fight "like the dickens for his amendment"? If everything that he said is true it should pass without difficulty. But Katie knows that a very large percentage of the uneducated public ( thanks to the Msm ) believes that the President controls everything.
Actually, the simplest solu
March 30, 2007 - 02:09 ET by Varek RaithActually, the simplest solution would be to take the pork spending and transfer it to cancer reseach, and poof!, problem solved. Though I assume this is far too logical for the fools in Congress.
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"Understanding is a three edged sword. Your side, their side, and the truth" - Kosh
Harkin's reelection grandstanding
March 30, 2007 - 05:51 ET by nkviking75Harkin is up for reelection in '08. Expect to see lots of him this year and next. Also, expect a lot of money to be thrown at agriculture. As chairman of the Senate Ag Committee and a senator from Iowa, this will be a favorite way to buy votes. In the recent war funding pork parade, notice how much of the pork was ag-related. Harkin doesn't have any Republicans making noise about running against him. When an opponent surfaces, things will only get worse.
Cancer for us all
March 30, 2007 - 09:39 ET by milesfromhomeEntities such as Fox News and, of course, Rush Limbaugh, who started it all, have driven MSMers to insanity. They rail against challenges to their "truth" and make things worse for themselves. (Witness this stupid piece.) I hope they continue to loudly say everything that's on their minds, as often as they can. And I love that it all gets filtered through Rosie O'Donnell, who most effectively delivers their word to the world. They are slowly sealing their fate as a completely (hilariously) discredited group of anti-intellectual pissants.
Tom Harkin on CBS re. Cancer funding
March 30, 2007 - 10:15 ET by River CityIt's enough to make an Iowan proud !!!!!
I think everyone is jealous they don't have a senator who calls the Bahamas "Home" instead of the state he represents. The only times those of us who live in Iowa see Mr. Harkin are during the presidential election cycles and when it's time for his re-election.
I will send a letter to Mr. Harkin and ask him to take the money from the Bridge to No Where and re-allocate it to Katie's favorite cause.
on the other hand...
March 30, 2007 - 15:48 ET by Gary Hallon the other hand.. this President Bush did answer the call of activists, Koffi Annan, Hollywood and others in understanding that one of the world's long overlook developing "pandemics" - the HIV/Aids crisis, especially in Africa and parts of Indonesia. Newsworthy? Not on your life.
Breast Cancer research has been well funded over the years by Washington. It is a serious disease. In the process, however many other horrible diseases have been overlooked. And there is an activist for every cause out there ready to make the case.
Possibly as President Bush stepped up to the plate to lead on the issue of actually addressing the IV/Aids pandemic, by boldly proposing, then boldly receiving funding a promised $15 billion in new money (and still growing), the funding for breast cancer research got pared back a little bit.
In the meantime, the MSM bias, did not suffer in the least. Even though Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton, Bono, Lord Ali, Bob Gelfdof and so many others around the world have praised President Bush for answering the call, and leading on this issue, according to Newsweek (May 15th, 2006) - "Only 3% of Americans know.." That was noted on page 64 of a Newsweek special report, "Aids at 25," which showcased the ex-president (I'm not going to mention his name here) who apologized for doing little to address the Aids crisis, as president; the same magazine issue that did nothing, other than note that nobody knows, to promote what President Bush actually did do. Neither has the rest of the media.
So is the Iraqi war a Republi
March 30, 2007 - 15:56 ET by Airforce_5_OSo is the Iraqi war a Republican conspiracy to get John Edward's wife or a Democratic one to get Tony Snow?
This is so stupid it really isn't worth the time.
Where is jeffy and bill to spin this one out of control?
Can't find 78 million dollars
March 31, 2007 - 19:12 ET by AmmoManCan't find 78 million dollars. Let's see...
They can find 75 million for peanut storage in Georgia. Another 25 million for spinach growers in California. Oh, and another 15 million to protect rice fields from saltwater. Hmmm... there's 115 million right there.
Can't find 78 million dollars
March 31, 2007 - 19:12 ET by AmmoManCan't find 78 million dollars. Let's see...
They can find 75 million for peanut storage in Georgia. Another 25 million for spinach growers in California. Oh, and another 15 million to protect rice fields from saltwater. Hmmm... there's 115 million right there.
And that's just this week's p
March 31, 2007 - 19:39 ET by dahliatraversAnd that's just this week's pork.