embarrassing to be a Democrat

[fgnord]

I just want to say that at the same time as the Democrats are crippling our science institutions

Comments

[mkwilson]

I do wish scientific funding was a higher priority for the nation.

But, this is a perfect example of what I don't like about political speeches. It's one thing to say "I want to give more money to X". It's quite a different beast to say "I want to increase budget for X, and I think we can do this by decreasing the budget for Y". Every politician promises to give more money to everything without raising taxes or cutting funding to anything else, even when we have a budget shortfall. It's magic!

[fgnord]

Obviously you have to pay for your investments, and with the exception of the Carter and Clinton administrations, the US has been extremely bad about that for most of the past 40 years. So I agree that we need to make things more economically balanced than they are right now. Personally, I think it wouldn't kill us to repeal some of these recent irresponsible tax cuts. But in the end it comes down to choices. Taking this all into account, my opinion still is that cutting scientific funding for fundamental research below their already declining levels is moronic, and I am embarrassed that the Democrats were the ones to do it. But, I can understand if other people think that was a better choice than the alternatives. Just my own opinion on things.

[mkwilson]

The more that I think about the economy, the more baffled I get that the thing works to any extent.

I think I've developed an allergy to political speeches after listening to so many candidates spew soundbites on NPR (5+ years thanks to my labmates). Every politician sounds phony to me. So young, so very cynical.