Meghan McCain has said she was left ‘absolutely heartbroken’ by the federal government’s recently-passed spending bill – taking specific aim at her ‘fellow Republicans’ in a since-deleted social media post.
The six-month continuing resolution, which was passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president last month, includes major cuts to research into the cancer that killed her father, the late Sen. John McCain.
He had been diagnosed with a form of brain cancer called Glioblastoma in 2017, and died just one year later.
But in her X post on Tuesday, McCain said that the National Institutes of Health had tried to treat her father for the incurable cancer, and have developed a laser-focused Glioblastoma treatment to reduce the size of tumors, which she called ‘nothing short of a miracle.’
Federal funds to research further treatments are now at risk under the spending bill, as it would cut funds for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program – which finances various cancer research programs through the NIH, according to the Daily Beast.
‘My fellow Republicans – this is wrong,’ Meghan McCain posted on X Tuesday before quickly deleting it, the outlet reports.
‘I am absolutely heartbroken at the news the funding for brain cancer research has been completely cut from NIH,’ she continued, noting ‘my father and millions of others have been treated there for Glioblastoma and other brain cancers with miracle doctors and nurses.
‘Those of us who are part of the brain cancer community are mourning today,’ the former The View co-host declared.
‘America and NIH have always been a beacon of hope for those of us praying for a cure,’ she explained.
McCain then argued that ‘some government spending is needed and appropriate – cancer research is one of them.
‘I am heartbroken by this,’ she reiterated.
Under the Republican-backed spending bill, the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program’s (CDMRP) budget would be slashed by 57 percent, from $1.5 billion to just $650 million, according to Roll Call.
Out of the nearly $860 million that was cut, $185million was taken from cancer programs – and now research into Glioblastoma will not receive any federal funding after receiving a total of $10 million last year.
Research funding for kidney cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer were similarly cut.
It is unclear why McCain took deleted her message just hours after posting it, but she had been facing extreme backlash from liberals who claimed she was only able to understand the threat of funding cuts when they personally affected her.
‘The tell here is “my father”- for Republicans there is empathy only when they are immediately impacted by an issue,’ author Joyce Carol Oates wrote.
‘If her father hadn’t had brain cancer this same person would be mocking and derisive of cancer research,’ she claimed.
‘Conservative brains just don’t seem to operate like liberal brains -to be blunt. their concern is solely for their own kind, people who look and think like them or are in fact them. No one else seems to matter to them.’
But McCain’s post also received some praise, including from American Cancer Society President Lisa Lacasse, who thanked the former talk show host before her post was deleted.
‘Thank you @MeghanMcCain for amplifying the critical importance of cancer research,’ she wrote.
‘We appreciate you using your voice on behalf of cancer patients and their loved ones nationwide.’
Lacasse then went on to urge Americans to sign a petition calling on Congress to stop the cuts to research.
‘Cancer patients and their families depend on lifesaving cancer research,’ it says, noting: ‘Every new breakthrough in cancer treatment and prevention starts with federal funding.
‘Cuts to cancer research mean slowing progress, delaying new treatments and putting lives at risk.’