I often joke that I am the healthiest unhealthy person I know. I have many chronic conditions, including diabetes, asthma and glaucoma. But thanks to research done by the National Institutes of Health, I have medications that, at 61, have me at the healthiest I’ve been in years.

If you don’t think the cuts to NIH impact you and you applaud this shortsighted “cost savings” of the Trump administration, then you are either not paying attention or your life has never been touched by cancer, dementia, heart disease or just about any chronic disease or physical ailment.

The Preamble to the Constitution says we exist as a nation to “promote the general welfare.” The research done through the NIH does just that, and research requires labs, techs and overhead to pay for the lights and equipment.

So if you are opposed to these draconian cuts, let  your legislators know or live what you say you believe. Throw away any medications impacted by an NIH grant — which is pretty much all of them — and don’t do any preventive screenings because why would you need them if you don’t want to use any government-funded research to address what they find.

We can’t have it both ways. We are either a society that supports the general welfare, including research, or we aren’t.  Choices have consequences. And this one weakens us all.