Bio research needs buildings. Electricity, heat, lights need to be on in those buildings and they need maintenance. Labs need equipment and often very specialized and expensive space. Not to mention someone needs to do accounting, payroll, taxes, immigration, maintenance, legal, ethics, etc. And all of these people need facilities, offices, computers, etc. Just like any corporation!
These are indirect costs. You cannot do research without them.
What's going to happen if the government cuts off most indirect costs is that we're going to be forced to do research that can be covered by those costs.
So, no, more money isn't going to go to better research. It's going to go to much worse research and it will be a massive waste.
Instead of doing the best research I can, I'll need to think about the lowest overhead projects so that my department doesn't go bankrupt. That means taking no risks, avoiding new data collection, not starting up anything radically new that might not have an immediate payoff, etc. That's a bad deal for everyone!
Good scientists don't want to do bad research. The best will leave.
This will destroy the lead that the US has in science and technology over the rest of the world. Never mind kill countless people who would have been saved by new treatments.
