Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has joined a group of other prominent Republicans calling for more federal spending dollars for scientific research.
Huckabee is running for president. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Florida Gov Jeb Bush, two likely GOP candidates for president, recently announced their support for more science dollars as well.
"Governor Huckabee strongly supports NIH funding because Americans rely on its innovative collaborative research for scientific breakthroughs that will help find cures for so many debilitating diseases," Huckabee's aide Hogan Gidley told
The Huffington Post.
"Hopefully, one day, that will include Alzheimer's. The governor believes we must protect and expand these critical medical investments."
Huckabee's call for more federal investment in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) seems to be in line with his campaign strategy of targeting older voters, writes
The Huffington Post. And before he announced his candidacy for president, Huckabee was a
pitchman for a product that promised to treat diabetes.
Huckabee downplayed his role with the company and eventually severed ties before he joined the race for the White House.
In his presidential announcement speech, Huckabee, reports the Post, emphasized medical problems that plague families.
"Cures could give real hope to families who hear a dreaded diagnosis and are sentenced to a slow and agonizing death," Huckabee said, according to the Post. "Alzheimer's disease alone will cost well over $1 trillion by 2050."
Former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich said recently the government should double the funding it provides to NIH, a biomedical research facility based in Bethesda, Maryland.
"As a conservative, I'm often skeptical of government 'investments.' But when it comes to breakthroughs that could cure — not just treat — the most expensive diseases, government is unique. It alone can bring the necessary resources to bear," Gingrich said.
"For this reason, we should double the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget, which has fallen flat in the last 12 years, so they can focus more resources on the most common and expensive health problems."
The NIH was in the news in recent months because of
the Ebola crisis, as some patients were transferred to the facility for treatment.