The NIH provides financial support for a large percentage of biological and medical research in the United States. This funding supports a large number of US jobs, creates new knowledge, and improves healthcare for everyone. So I am signing this petition: 

NIH funding is essential to our national research enterprise, to our local economies, to the retention and careers of talented and well-educated people, to the survival of our medical educational system, to our rapidly fading worldwide dominance in biomedical research, to job creation and preservation, to national economic viability, and to our national academic infrastructure.

The current administration is proposing a flat $30.7 billion FY 2013 NIH budget. The graph below (left) shows how small the NIH budget is in comparison to the Defense and Medicare budgets in absolute terms. The difference between the administration’s proposal and the petition’s proposal ($33 billion) are barely noticeable. 

The graph on the right shows how in 2003 growth in the NIH budget fell dramatically while medicare and military spending kept growing. However, despite the decrease in rate, the NIH budget did continue to increase under Bush. If we follow Bush’s post 2003 rate (dashed line), the 2013 budget will be about what the petition asks for: $33 billion.  

If you agree that the relatively modest increase in the NIH budget is worth the incredibly valuable biological, medical, and economic benefits this funding will provide, please consider signing the petition before April 15