The news about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will determine our country’s future for the next four to eight years. But there are other, lesser-known headlines that could determine the futures of our children and grandchildren.
This report from the Washington Free Beacon, for example, describes how the National Institutes of Health recently spent $50,000 to determine if college students eat junk food while they drink. That’s right. The two-year study rests on the hypothesis that “heavy drinking may lead to unhealthy eating habits surrounding drinking episodes.”
Roughly 175 college freshmen at the University of Kansas will be weighed three times a year for the study and asked questions about their eating habits when drinking.
The researchers say that junk food has been “overlooked” when studying why college freshmen gain weight.
“Heavy alcohol use, weight gain, and obesity are highly prevalent among college students,” according to a grant for the project, which was awarded this summer. “Alcohol is a dense calorie source and heavy use during college may lead to weight gain that is maintained through adulthood. However, examination of this potential effect in college students has been limited to secondary analysis of existing datasets with weak, often non-validated assessment of alcohol consumption.”
“In addition to being a caloric source, heavy drinking may lead to unhealthy eating habits surrounding drinking episodes, which may also contribute to weight gain,” the grant said.
We aren't scientists, but we have a pretty good idea what they're going to "discover."
Fifty-thousand dollars is a fraction of a drop in the federal budget. But the NIH’s annual budget is well over $32 billion. If they’re willing to spend even $50,000 on a useless study, how many other studies are a complete waste of taxpayer dollars? And the NIH isn’t alone. Dozens of federal agencies spend our money without regard for the future of the American people, increasing the national debt and burdening future generations with the responsibility of paying it off.
The majority of Congresspeople can’t be bothered to enforce good spending habits, but a Convention of States can change that. An Article V Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that force Congress to balance the budget, impose spending caps, and limit taxation. The feds won’t have a choice but to cut back on the trillions of dollars wasted each year on useless projects, useless programs, and useless agencies.
