I wonder if Karl Ruprect Cheney is aware that his life-saving LVAD heart pump exists because of government-funded research and development? I'm sure he does. But I'm also sure he'll continue to demonize government spending.
LVADs are the direct legacy of the program to build a total artificial heart that was instituted at NIH more than 50 years ago. While a total artificial heart proved difficult to create, partial artificial hearts were designed and actively used in government-financed research trials by the late 1990s. While the newly empowered GOP is saber-rattling about huge cuts in government spending, without federal funding for NIH, Cheney would be very unlikely to be alive to join that chorus.
Hmm. American taxpayer wealth -- redistributed to Dick Cheney's fucked up heart. Government-run healthcare. I wonder why a small government, anti-socialist conservative Republican would partake in the benefits of democratic-socialism.
Again, the President Bartlet refrain: "Can we have it back, please?"