Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kosh on February 08, 2009, 10:11:58 pm

Title: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Kosh on February 08, 2009, 10:11:58 pm
 Back to the same old routine (http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/08/1521217)

Quote
pdabbadabba points out a CNN report on changes to the planned economic stimulus bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [PDF]) that will remove the $2 billion allocated to broadband development. The changes also eliminated smaller amounts allocated to NASA, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, and the National Science Foundation. $16 billion in school construction funding was removed, as well as another $3.5 billion for higher education construction. A variety of environmental projects were also cut or reduced (half of the $7 billion set aside for energy-efficient federal buildings, half of the $600 million for hybrid federal vehicles), and over $8 billion in health-related provisions are gone. The bill will likely go to vote in the Senate on Tuesday.


Granted this is just the senate version, but this doesn't bode well for the future.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Turambar on February 08, 2009, 10:28:26 pm
At this point, **** bipartisan-ness.  Democrats have enough votes to get these things through without one frakkin republi**** vote, so ditch them, give me higher taxes, and give me the godsdamned broadband
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Bob-san on February 08, 2009, 11:07:21 pm
I say just clean the damn bill up to the core and allocate all those other funds in other bills.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Solatar on February 08, 2009, 11:30:21 pm
When the democrats say "bipartisan" they really mean "Republicans must agree with our side or be labeled partisan".

That's not really going to occur, so I don't know why they're so stuck on that happening.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Kosh on February 09, 2009, 12:29:18 am
When the democrats say "bipartisan" they really mean "Republicans must agree with our side or be labeled partisan".

That's not really going to occur, so I don't know why they're so stuck on that happening.


The Republicans are no different in that regard.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: iamzack on February 09, 2009, 06:38:55 am
Why's anyone surprised? They removed all the funding for family planning before they even tried to pass it.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Solatar on February 09, 2009, 07:21:00 am
When the democrats say "bipartisan" they really mean "Republicans must agree with our side or be labeled partisan".

That's not really going to occur, so I don't know why they're so stuck on that happening.


The Republicans are no different in that regard.

At this point I'm not claiming one is better than the other, just that the Democrats need to stop trying to be "bipartisan". Like Nancy Pelosi said "We won the election, we wrote the bill". Nothing bipartisan about it, and I don't know why they're trying to make it so.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Charismatic on February 09, 2009, 01:43:41 pm
Nasa's budget gets cut again..
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: BengalTiger on February 09, 2009, 02:30:06 pm
At this point, **** bipartisan-ness.  Democrats have enough votes to get these things through without one frakkin republi**** vote, so ditch them, give me higher taxes, and give me the godsdamned broadband


Didn't the Reps vote against something recently, as a whole party? AFAIK it didn't stop the Dems from approving the stimulus package.

What we see now, ladies and gents, is pure Democrat government: Senate, House of Representatives (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress), and now POTUS all belong to them. The Republicans don't have much influence on what's currently being created. I'd even say they don't have any influence at all, as they can either agree, disagree and be called partisian, or vote present, and the Dems will do whatever they want regardless.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Kosh on February 09, 2009, 10:54:28 pm
Quote
What we see now, ladies and gents, is pure Democrat government: Senate, House of Representatives, and now POTUS all belong to them.


We had 6 years of the republicans controlling the white house, the house of representatives, and the senate. They failed, and what we ended up getting was massive incompetence (Katrina anyone?), corruption, and cronyism. We're bleeding to death financially from Iraq and their 8 years of reckless overspending (so much for small government) combined with tax cuts for the rich. The economy is in a flaming death spiral, we alienated the world, what is there not to like about pure republican governments?
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: iamzack on February 10, 2009, 07:27:15 am
Isn't the Supreme Court still in Republican hands? I haven't been paying attention. :\

I think I have changed my mind. I do prefer Democrats to Republicans, if only because Democrats will let me kill little people that think it's cool to hang around in my abdomin and make me fat.
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: Nissan on February 10, 2009, 05:02:05 pm
Nasa's budget gets cut again..

Yeah, early in 2008 Obama said he was planning to push Project Constellation back by five years, and use the money that would've gone to that to fund his education plans.  He changed his mind just before the election and said he wouldn't, but it's pretty clear space exploration isn't a priority for him.

Granted, there are more pressing concerns right now, so it's hard to totally blame him for that.  It's still kinda frustrating though...
Title: Re: So much for stimulating science & tech.....
Post by: General Battuta on February 18, 2009, 01:20:53 am
Science funding survives stimulus cuts. (http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/sciencefunding.html)

Say goodbye to 'so much for stimulating science and tech'.