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Debt deal could hit local teaching hospitals
By adamg on Wed, 08/03/2011 - 8:57am
WBUR reports on possible effects of research cuts on teaching hospitals in Massachusetts, which bring in more federal science funds per capita than any other state - some $2.4 billion just from the National Institutes of Health last year.
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Comments
Can state thrive without Ted Kennedy/federal government
We got too used to having Ted Kennedy around making deals with every president and directing money from Washington back to these places. We are in for a tough realignement of expectations unless we figure out another way to get more money.
Derp Derp
MA is still a state where we are taxed much more federally than what we get back. It's been that way for a long while. Scott Brown also isn't against bringing back the pork, as it's been a precedent for over 200 years.
Our economy really is our own, and it's because our state government actively invests in biotech, technology, healthcare and education. We also have a very large finance sector.
If you want to use that argument, it be better off complaining about all those bootstrappy red states. Once again the austerity measures (and political platform) of the
GOP hit their constituents the hardest.
Although, sometimes they turn around and try to increase those ratios, like they're doing by cutting FAA projects in Dem rural areas while padding leaving them along or padding them in Republican districts.
Mass gets 75 cents back for every dollar it sends to DC
I don't disagree. But these things have geographic effects. In my home state of New York, the Albany area was brutally disfavored by Republican governors who moved the state contracting work to their own geographic fiefs.
I would bet that the money would be going different places if it was not directed by DC, and may go different places in the future.
I am not against healthcare and hospitals, however we cannot count on them surviving forever as part of a government/healthcare/industrial complex.
In addition our state government might change without a powerful Democrat supporting his state party with federal outlays. If the overall kickback goes down even more, you might find voters questioning whether they can support the continuation of our unequal giving/receiving relationship with Washington in the form of a continued progressive attitude towards federal taxation.
We could be in the middle of that change and it wouldn't hurt to diversify.