Last week, Hillary Clinton pledged to spend $2 billion a year to find a cure for Alzheimer’s by 2025 – an admirable effort, no doubt. At the time, an aide said the program would be paid in the form of tax reforms and other savings. On Tuesday, Clinton gave us some indication regarding what those “other savings” would look like.
At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, the former Secretary of State suggested that to invest more in medical research, we should redistribute our military expenditures. The proposal came after a supporter shared a tragic story about how she lost her husband to dementia.
It’s time we treat diseases like Alzheimer’s with the seriousness they deserve.
https://t.co/n96g9P9TR1
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 29, 2015“You know, if we put the money into Alzheimer’s that we otherwise would put into some additional military asset, just think of the lives it would save,” Clinton said, “and the potential that it would, perhaps, create for dealing with tragedies like yours.”
Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It is expected that 15 million people will be diagnosed with it by 2050. Time, money and research should be spent on finding a cure for this tragic disease.
This is obviously a passion of Mrs. Clinton’s – she spent eight years on the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s as a state senator for New York. But, is digging into the pockets of the Defense Department the best option?