NIH enables an administrative class by providing institutions with money far beyond what they actually need to conduct science. That money is fungible. Universities treat NIH funding as income, mix it with other revenue sources, and use the resulting financial flexibility to expand bureaucracy, pay administrators exorbitant salaries, and create an administrative class that protects itself and serves its own interests as the institution’s interests rather than serving the scientists underneath it. Universities are extremely skilled at playing accounting games, surviving audits, and producing exactly the paperwork and talking points they hand to people who want to remain in their good graces. The reality is that anyone who has looked at the finances of a large university knows there are nearly infinite ways to move money among departments, accounts, facilities, salaries, and internal charges while preserving the appearance that every dollar was properly allocated. An audit can show that the accounting rules were followed. It cannot show that the institution needed the money, spent it wisely, or did not use it to subsidize an administrative empire.