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Science Programs Hit Hard By Proposed Budget
BJ_Covert_Action writes "The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations has released a list of proposed spending cuts for the US Federal Government. The proposed cuts include reductions in spending on many science organizations and funds such as NASA, NOAA, nuclear energy research, fossil fuel energy research, clean coal research, the CDC, the NIH, and numerous EPA programs. There are also quite a few cuts proposed on domestic services, such as Americorps and high speed rail research. The House Appropriations Chairman, Hal Rogers, acknowledges that the cuts go deep, and would hurt every district across the country. But they are still deemed necessary to rein in Congressional spending. Notoriously absent from the proposed budget cuts are two of the largest spending sinks in the federal budget: the Department of Defense and Social Security."
The DoD is the sacred cow to end all sacred cows, the only way it's ever going to get budget cut is if there is nothing else left to cut.
Defense spending will not be cut because it's *one of the few legitimate and constitutionally required functions of government*. And political suicide.
Social security will not be cut because it would be political suicide. Instead, they will keep collecting for it, using the money for something else, and go bankrupt sometime in the not-to-distant future.
To paraphrase, "If you think knowledge is expensive, try ignorance!"
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Defense and security: In 2010, some 20 percent of the budget, or $715 billion, will pay for defense and security-related international activities. The bulk of the spending in this category reflects the underlying costs of the Department of Defense and other security-related activities. The total also includes the cost of supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is expected to total $172 billion in 2010.
Social Security: Another 20 percent of the budget, or $708 billion, will pay for Social Security, which provided retirement benefits averaging $1,117 per month to 36 million retired workers (and their eligible dependents) in December 2009. Social Security also provided survivors’ benefits to 6.4 million surviving children and spouses of deceased workers and disability benefits to 9.7 million disabled workers and their eligible dependents in December 2009.
Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP: Three health insurance programs — Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — will together account for 21 percent of the budget in 2010, or $753 billion. Nearly two-thirds of this amount, or $468 billion, will go to Medicare, which provides health coverage to around 46 million people who are over the age of 65 or have disabilities. The remainder of this category funds Medicaid and CHIP, which in a typical month in 2010 will provide health care or long-term care to about 64 million low-income children, parents, elderly people, and people with disabilities. Both Medicaid and CHIP require matching payments from the states.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258
Some of that is obviously ideological (EPA, Clean *, etc.), but the rest is just stupid.
In addition to the long-term hazards of cutting back science (and education), austerity programs are exactly what government's *shouldnt* do when the economy sags. Every dollar they cut from a program is a dollar someone isn't going to be spending next year, so tax revenues will drop even further.
A government with any sense would establish a sustainable cost of operations, borrow money when times are bad, and pay off the loans when times are good.
Unfortunately, a republic (representative democracy) tends to become a 'politicianocracy', and politicians buy votes by spending money on stuff their supporters want. So nobody wants to pay down debt when times are good; they just want to take the opportunity to spend more.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Yes, when those post-docs lose their research funding they'll just keep researching in their garage at their own expense. There they will join the mass ranks of other volunteer scientists making new and groundbreaking discoveries every day.
We're talking about cutting well over $5 billion from science spending. Anyone that wants to pretend that won't destroy much of 'the media good science grows on' is delusional.
Which war?
Obama claims we pulled out of Iraq, although for some reason we still have a lot of soldiers there.
Afghanistan is an endless war, we'll either leave or give up at some point (I hope.)
Pakistan is probably the scariest, because there are actual nukes in the country, an unstable government, and (so we're told) terrorist types hiding out.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Did you ever hear of the National Institutes of Health?
http://healthpolicyandreform.nejm.org/?p=13733&query=home
P.S. Vannevar is not related to George. He invented the Internet in 1945. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/
the US is one of the worst countries in science education.
What are you talkig about? We've got the latest "intelligent design". We teach that Global Warming is caused by SUVs, light bulbs are evil, innoculations cause mental disease, polar bears are almost completely gone, and people used to ride around on brontosaurus. We know that nuclear power plants will likely explode like a nuclear bomb, anything organic is good for you, diluting something until there is almost no chance that there is one molacule in a 50 gallon drum makes extremely powerful medicine, and waving your hands over a patient will cure serious diseases. The internet was designed by Al Gore as a series of tubes, cell phones are a major cause of cancer, and violent video games is one of the the major causes of crime.
Why should you be worried about science education in the US?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Part of the problem is that anybody who proposes DoD cuts is immediately labeled a dangerous agitator who wants to embolden our enemies and put American lives at risk. There's a large and well-funded industry that's dedicated to perpetuating this myth, and they're frighteningly effective at their job. If we're to ever get the deficit situation under control, it will require a certain degree of maturity from the electorate -- along with the realization that there's enough pork in the defense budget to make a bacon replica of the Hoover Dam.
We also need a certain degree of maturity and a solidly-grounded perspective on taxes, as well -- but that's neither here nor there.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
Social Security is OUTSIDE the general fund and people need to realize it was designed to be completely separated from the rest of the system - they are only lumping it in because it is under attack and they keep trying to STEAL money from it as if it were general revenue - which is is not.
Social Security is paid for and only needs occasional rises or declines to adjust to population changes. Its almost a FLAT tax except that it exempts the rich. It is about as much of a "lock box" as we've ever had legally; politically, its been under heavy assault from day one. If you thought private health insurance was bad, just wait for them to get their hands on social security... Of course, we've had additions made to Social Security to increase its costs and we've refused to make it adapt with the times - trying to subtly sabotage the program.
Social Security is extremely popular and the PEOPLE can mandate THEIR government to "insure domestic Tranquility" and "promote the general Welfare." The constitution only really limits government, if not prohibited by law, its legal. Its not the other way around - it need not say what it CAN do only what it can not do. Elementary school basic government covered this. Basic logic also covers this, as you have an infinite set of possible actions and a finite set of prohibited actions -- you list the negative set.
Now we talk like social security are general fund welfare programs but these are things WE ALL (except rich) pay into our whole lives and for generations now and we deserve to get what we paid for / invested in! I PAID for them and I'm fucking going to get my money back when I need it!
If the government can't pay back then the situation is so bad that the currency and economy are so bad that the alternatives are not going to work either (except for an elite minority.)
Medicare and the others are general fund programs and they do not operate the same way; they have problems because of their closer connection with the political machine.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Money is just a means to a cause.
Long before the last 3 decades of living on debt Americans could support a very high median level of living ... they did it with a very small trade deficit, about the same level of workforce participation, a nearly equal government budget to GDP ratio and with FAR less productivity. What has changed fundamentally that it's impossible now?
Hint: Who do you think has one of the most pressing interest in getting efficient solar panels, or pretty much any other kind of energy source that does not require fuel from within our planet?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Social Security spending is big because it's the retirement programme for everyone in our entire big country. It pays for itself. It doesn't contribute to any deficit or debt - to the contrary, Social Security is the largest lender to our debt, which is driven by war spending (that never dips, even in "peacetime").
Social Security doesn't need any changes to accommodate retiring Baby Boomers - it was already tweaked to collect enough for them, starting back in the 1980s. There is no projected problems with Social Security until at earliest 2039, which is a lot longer than any other programme. And if we want to fix that, all we have to do is collect Social Security payments on income above $105K, which limit currently makes Social Security a regressive tax.
None of the lies they're telling you to cheat you of your guaranteed retirement plan are true. They're preying on the post-Boomer generations' innuendo that "we'll never get Social Security", because they've been trying to steal it from you your whole life. Don't let them. Make them cut the $TRILLIONS in "defense" and "intelligence" budgets that are mostly waste, corruption and investments in war instead of peace and growth.
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make install -not war