Hosting a large number of top universities which conduct research attracts the best and brightest minds from around the world, many of whom stay in the US after doing their PhD, and is a significant factor in what makes the US the biggest economy in the world.

Even if you subscribe to an America First policy, tearing down university research labs (which is the knock-on effect of cuts at the NIH, NSF, etc.) is one of the worst things you could do.

Want to actually cut gov spending? Look no further than the military budget (which the GOP Congress is proposing to _increase_, not decrease).

(That being said, yes, there is waste at universities. I'm all for some reform, but this is not reform, it's destruction.)