And so we slip further away from the dominating position we once held in science. Combine this with education cutbacks… Thanks, George and Congress for holding the line on wasteful spending!
Senate Passes Science-Slim Budget, Funding “Crisis” Feared
The U.S. Senate passed its version of a budget bill late last night, complete with all the deep cuts for high-energy physics and other scientific projects we wrote about yesterday. A few issues remain – the House hasn’t yet added Iraq war funding – but the science issues are unlikely to change before final passage.A few other media outlets are picking up on the effects on Fermilab, the United States’ premier particle accelerator. According to the facility’s director Pier Oddone, the lab may have to shut down for a month under the current funding plan, which he says (according to the Chicago Tribune, here) would create the biggest funding crisis in the lab’s 40-year history.
Politicians – or at least those who are mentioning the science cutbacks – are blaming the war.
What else would you expect from the most anti-science president in living memory and a spineless congress?
It’s the Amurikan Way. Why cut back on killing people when it’s easier to stop learning and thinking?
The Republikans can still rely on the idjit vote.
Just curious, is it a cut in funding, or a cut in the budget amount asked for? I.E. a cut in the increase?
pedro said, That Democratic congress is a winner. And people were upset becuase GWB was elected, HA!
The real loathsome bunch are the obstructionist Republicans.
The Congress is only half over and the Republicans have already broken the all-time record for filibusters!
http://tinyurl.com/ypr4mu
And then goofball conservatives blame the Dems for it
Whenever a city wants to increase taxes, they claim they will need to close the libraries and lay off cops and fire fighters because they are running out of money.
Is (the Democratic Party dominated) Congress pulling the same thing?
Remember all that pork the Democrats claimed they were going to do away with? Has pork increased or decreased, and by how much?
let see we actually need the war funding because, WE ARE IN A WAR ! but do we need the wood stock museum or a walking bridge or some of the other billions of dollars of pork put in this bill
I think not
Before you jump to blaming the war for the cut backs, blame the pork that could easily be cut and fund science and learning projects well over %100
Let’s not get all panicky here. So our manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. So many of our technology jobs are going overseas. Don’t worry, the rest of the world will learn science and keep it alive as the Holy American Empire falls. I wish I had some idea how to stop our leader from fiddling while we burn. But, I don’t.
Firefox plug in tells me we have 397 days of this left. But, what will be next?
#8: We don’t need the pork just like we don’t need the war. Same thing. Just a different kind of pork. Hmmm… The Iraq War: The other other white meat.
Yeah keep the people stupid while they go about using a nation’s army to fuel their own agendas. It’s win-win for this government. I am giving this country 20-30 years until we’re considered a “third world” Nation. We’re basically “second world” now if that term exists.
aahhhh look at that ‘no child left behind’ policy go……… right out the window..
platitudes and tax cuts = results??
what a strategy.
Uncle Dave you may not like the war but cutting the funding and running is not an answer either. It looks like we are actually having an affect there now and you have to admit a stable democratic country in the middle east would be really nice would it not
Answer, pedro- you’ve got to be kidding. Our economy is by far the strongest in the world, and the trend is accelerating. We’re a hegemonic power, fercryinoutloud. Few other nations even play on the fields we dominate. Are you going by the fact that we get jawboned alot by other nations? Ha! Without commenting on any issue in particular, I can say with 100% certainty that the disparity in power, prestige, wealth that manifestly exists between us and the rest of the world is enough to create that jawboning all by itself.
Just wait until China is forced to conduct a series of wars of conquest later this century in order to avoid internal (pop growth, uneven economic dev) disaster. The Chinese century is not going to look like most folks predict.
I do agree that we need to spend more, not less, on science. BTW- no one answered the question from higher up the thread – is this an actual decrease, or a decrease in the rate of increase?
#14: It would be nice. Stable (ie, under US puppet control) makes it easier to take the oil we need without those being taken from complaining too much because their leaders were ‘elected.’
Republicans get rid of science in order to have the youth grow up to be religious nuts. This creates more republicans. The American circle of death… er, life.
I’d cut the budget for high-energy physics whether they need the money or not. This is a bright spot in the budget picture that I’m glad to hear. Already Europe spent billions and now we are spending billions to do a little my collider is bigger than your collider. On top of that, the scientists doing the experiments don’t want to succeed, because if they do, they might blow up the universe!
Of course, the skeptic in me feels that this money will be spent anyways.
As for overall education cuts, could you be more specific? That story line gets thrown out all the time, even though education spending keeps increasing.
Pmitch, why doesn’t congress start cutting the waste in the military? If you want to cut some pork start with the military. The soldiers get the short end of the stick while commercial businesses get the money from military contracts. I am sure with some wise cuts the 70 billion dollars will appear within the military budget.
I do agree with you that there is way too much pork in the government’s budget. As long as taxes aren’t raised, people will think money from the government is free.
As long as taxes aren’t raised, people will think money from the government is free.
Including politicians.
I like how if people use the word ‘science’, they are willing to hand over control over everything.
One of the top stem-cell researchers who now came up with a non-embryo method of research, he said that everyone should be uncomfortable with the use of embryo-destruction for research, yet others just heard ‘science’ and all’s well.
Spending billions for a new energy collider
? It’s ‘science’!
Smaller cars for everyone, more expensive energy, fewer houses? It’s science!
Who going to develop all the new weapon systems.
Well, the Preachers need dumb folks willing to spew their money at them.
If we’re going to pour money down a toilet, we should at least choose one that isn’t going to back up catastrophically. Money spent on basic research has paid for itself billions of times over. And will continue to pay dividends as long as we have a technology based civilization. Money spent on most other things is just gone. The only thing we as a species have found with lasting value, IS knowledge. Although, a cold beer every now and again is nice as well.
The solution is simple, move Fermilab to West Virginia.
There’s always money for Robert Bird’s pork – regardless of who is in charge.
#22–Thats what Scientologists think too! Good thing there are limits to most things.
Really, this money has paid for itself billions of times over? That’s a million trillion dollars for every billion spent.
Phillep Remember all that pork the Democrats claimed they were going to do away with? Has pork increased or decreased, and by how much?
I just can’t take any complaints about spending by conservatives any more.
The cons sanctimoniously finger wagged about liberal spending FOR DECADES.
But what did they do when they got total control of the government?
RECORD SPENDING
RECORD PORK
RECORD DEFICITS
RECORD DEBT
Everything conservatives lectured about fiscal responsibility WAS A TOTAL FRAUD. Then and now.
#29 – Yep, every time an electronics firm doesn’t have to re-discover Ohm’s Law when designing an electronic circuit. Every time an aeronautics company doesn’t have figure out basic equations about lift and drag. I’m sure there are tens of millions more examples like these two. And these two were basic research with no imaginable practical application ( Since there were scarcely any electrical devices other than telegraphs ) at the time. Oh yeah, basic scientific research has no value.