Never mind that the practice of selectively reinstating funding to programs and departments on a "what polls best" basis is not only reprehensible, but a fabulous way for the GOP to try and effectively defund stuff they really don't like, even while ducking out from under the harshest criticism of their shutting down the government.
What goes unsaid (except in an article like this) is that this whole debate — including but not at all limited to the NIH — is against a backdrop of the draconian sequestration cuts. Yeah, remember those? The "nobody would possibly allow this to happen because it's too horrible" cuts that the GOP were more than happy to let take place? The NIH is already suffering from a significant cut in its budget due to sequetration … and that's the new "baseline" that the Dems are being so "unreasonable" in asking for a clean Continuing Resolution to continue.
The GOP is utterly uninterested in (and the Dems desperately unable to restore) funding of the NIH at previous levels. But if they can get some great headlines about helping kids with cancer, even while having orchestrated funding cuts to the organization already, the Republicans are more than willing to do so. That helps them win, which right now seems their highest priority.
No, the House GOP Isn’t Standing Up for Kids With Cancer
The National Institutes of Health has become a symbol of the shutdown. But the GOP’s preferred budget enshrines massive cuts.