If you had told me Alabamians would cheer over cuts to funding for cancer research for kids, I’d have demanded to know what you were smoking.

Yet here we are. UAB is studying that.

Alabama’s No. 1 killer is heart disease, and UAB is studying ways to treat that, too.

Don’t worry about it. Like the great folk singer Todd Snider told us – without the need of a federal grant – the No. 1 symptom of heart disease is sudden death.

So live with it. Or don’t.

UAB is studying all of the things that kill us most often, and a lot of things with more syllables than I have patience with. But they speak my language.

Strokes and Parkinson’s. My dad had both of those things. Alzheimer’s and Diabetes – I bet you know somebody with those, too.

People wear pink for a whole month to show how much they care about curing breast cancer. They’re gonna have to run more than a 5k if the funding gets cut, as the National Institutes of Health announced last week.

I’ve heard it all, since the news broke. That it’s high time to cut the waste! That it’s blah blah about a woke mob and an institution with “something to hide.” But no specifics. Just a complete lack of understanding about how things work, complete disregard for science, and total callousness about the health of people and communities.

We’re throwing babies out with bilgewater.

Did I say UAB studies babies? And birth defects. Or it did.

The proposed cuts target “indirect” grant costs, which provide funds above the amount of the grant for things like salaries and equipment and expenses, things that make the work possible. Standard industry stuff. NIH announced Friday night it would limit that indirect amount to 15% of the grant.

The negotiated rate for UAB’s indirect costs for on-campus, organized research is 48.5%, according to the NIH agreement and school officials. That is far above the 15% cap, but not above average, they say. That’s less than Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and others.

But but but but but but but…

What about the money? Of course the money should be spent well, which is why it is publicly disclosed and monitored. I wrote earlier that I did not know what UAB’s rate was, but that was only because I didn’t know where to look.

Alabama will be hurt more than most because we depend on that money more than most, even if we don’t want to admit it.

This is a state where our people visit friends in the hospital and pray for them in churches and send casseroles to the grieving, who have seen too many people die too young. I can’t believe they would so willingly put so much in jeopardy.

And not for this. Not in a state that perennially lags in health, in a state that will sell its own soul for the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs.

Alabama has handed out $4.5 billion in grants, tax credits and paybacks, with varying degrees of success, to coax businesses to move here. Which is a harder sell because of our health, our lack of healthcare, and our disdain for science and education. We don’t throw that effort away every time some company turns out to be a fraud.

Jobs have always been more important than lives here. Now it seems we value neither.

Certainly U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville doesn’t. He’s all for the cuts. But then, he’s the hypocrite who took millions to leave that public university in east Alabama, but still has the brass to complain about government waste. Give it back, Tommy.

Give props to U.S Sen. Katie Britt for at least daring to whisper that we need a more targeted approach to cutting the budget.

Damn right. A chainsaw might be better than a hydrogen bomb.

Say it with her, so she can say it louder. Say it, Gov. Ivey. Say it, Ray Watts. Say it loud.

John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer winner for AL.com.