About 10 years ago, former Surgeon General C. Everitt Koop was asked if additional funding would speed the discovery of an AIDS cure. He replied that there were only so many qualified researchers out there and they were already doing AIDS research. Adding more money wouldn't necessarily make things happen faster. Medical research is mostly a slow, methodical process. Contrary to what some legislators seem to believe, you can't mandate a miracle.

Cancer research is progressing. The cure rates for many forms of cancer are far higher than they were 30 years ago. This research must continue. Still, if more money was all it takes to find a cure, then people like Sam Walton (of Wal Mart fame, formerly the richest man on Earth) would never have died of cancer.