Newt Gingrich in This Fight Is Our Fight, by Elizabeth Warren

On Health Care: Double funding for NIH research

I worked it every way I could. I had good conversations with several Republicans, and every one of them agreed: the NIH needs more money. When the NY Times ran an op-ed from Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the House, in April 2015, I immediately called him. He had argued that America should double its NIH funding, and I said "Hurrah!" about ten different ways. In the course of our conversation, I asked if he would be willing to work with me on getting more funding.

I put together an informational hearing, and I invited Gingrich to make a presentation. He was terrific. His best line: "To allow research funding to languish at a time of historic opportunity when you could be saving lives and saving money takes a special kind of stupidity that is reserved for this city."