{"id":11972,"date":"2007-12-19T21:32:20","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T04:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/12\/19\/poor-science.html"},"modified":"2007-12-19T21:32:20","modified_gmt":"2007-12-20T04:32:20","slug":"poor_science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/19\/poor_science.html","title":{"rendered":"Poor science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst on the subject of pretty star pictures, the Bad Astronomy blog also notes a few gems from the omnibus spending bill Congress just passed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The House and Senate passed an omnibus budget \u2014 the budget needed to fund the operation of the government. That would normally be great, but they have made some pretty severe science cuts. At first blush they don\u2019t sound bad, or even really like cuts: in general science agencies got a raise of 1-3% over the previous year.<\/p>\n

However, when you account for inflation, those raises don\u2019t keep up, so in reality the agencies affected \u2014 NIH, NSF, NASA, and others \u2014 got a cut. And while the cuts aren\u2019t crippling, exactly, they come at a time when the US has already ramped up some big projects, which means that any cut at all hurts more than usual.<\/p>\n

[…] And here we are again. When budgets get hit, it\u2019s usually salaries that take the heat, so this will suck for a lot of scientists.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am willing to allow the Democratically controlled (but not dominated) Congress a bit<\/em> of slack on the biggest headline of the budget bill, the funding toward Iraq (which was inevitable and, at some level, necessary) and the failure to get “conditions” on said funding (besides GOP filibusterability in the Senate, the fact is that, as has been proven in the past, given a no-budget deadlock between Congress and the President, the President tends to win). <\/p>\n

What’s actually more disappointing and discouraging is that we have cuts like the above — while things like abstinence-only education got its share of dollars for next year — even while everyone and their brother fed at the earmark food trough, reconfirming that, position papers aside, Dems are just as venal and politics-minded as Republicans.  While Bush was smirkingly drawing a line in the sand regarding war funding, the Dems could have been doing some major rejuggling of other funding priorities (would Bush actually veto the bill over abstinence educations?); instead, they won some symbolic victories, trashed science, and brought home the pork to their constituents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst on the subject of pretty star pictures, the Bad Astronomy blog also notes a few gems from the omnibus spending bill Congress just passed. The House and Senate passed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26382,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/13\/who-needs-a-final-frontier-anyway.html","url_meta":{"origin":11972,"position":0},"title":"Who needs a "final frontier," anyway?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Feb-12 10:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Except for, maybe, the Chinese. #ddtbReshared post from +Philip PlaitWhite House wants devastating cuts to NASA's Mars budgetThe Presidential NASA budget request was just made public, and while much of NASA funding remains stable overall, the White House wants to cut Mars exploration by a crippling $226 million, a slashing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9087,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/02\/21\/intersection_wi.html","url_meta":{"origin":11972,"position":1},"title":"Intersection with real life","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 21-Feb-06 8:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"What makes this story about the Bush visit to the National Renewable Energy Labs (and the restoration of the job cuts that hit the facility) of note is that NREL...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31054,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/29\/wait-now-the-conservatives-want-to-preserve-fema-funding.html","url_meta":{"origin":11972,"position":2},"title":"Wait … NOW the Conservatives want to preserve FEMA funding?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Oct-12 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Breitbart.com notes an Administration report in September describing\u00a0the impact of sequestration cuts on the whole of the Federal budget\u00a0-- including FEMA -- and conveniently interpreting it as a \"proposal\" to slash the emergency response department's budget by $900MM.The sequestration law was an awful idea, a case of \"kick the grenade\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39035,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/03\/there-are-cuts-and-then-there-are-cuts-also-cancer.html","url_meta":{"origin":11972,"position":3},"title":"There are cuts, and then there are cuts. Also, cancer.","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Oct-13 10:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it's jolly that the House GOP is running for a rhetorical photo op to reinstate funding for the NIH after they learned that some kids wouldn't get into cancer treatment programs ... which they can then use as a club against the Dems.Never mind that the practice of selectively\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133063,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/16\/trumps-budget-and-what-it-actually-means.html","url_meta":{"origin":11972,"position":4},"title":"Trump's budget and what it actually means","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Mar-17 11:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, on one level, not a lot. Congress actually proposes budget bills, and passes them. They can take suggestions from the President, they can make deals with the President, but ultimately the ideological decisions, local and special interest considerations \/ pandering, , and deals and compromises rest with Congress, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136349,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/09\/balancing-the-budget-on-the-backs-of-poor-children.html","url_meta":{"origin":11972,"position":5},"title":"Balancing the budget on the backs of poor children","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-May-18 10:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"CHIP (the Children's Health Insurance Program) is highly popular (and highly effective), but the GOP in Congress let its funding lapse (they were \"too busy\" trying to repeal the ACA), and now Trump is proposing that Congress try to claw back some of the wildly imbalanced budget he's responsible for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/trump-talks-to-kids.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}