Working for an NSF town hall meeting today was depressing.
The failure of the 2006 Congress to pass a budget is turning to catastrophe.
I don't blame the democrats from ducking the trap and going for a continuing resolution, am hoping the science budgets will be the pieces exempted, but am not holding my breath.
Cutting earmarks out is also good thing in general, except of course when they are our earmarks.
Eg a big part of the squeeze on the NASA science directorate are the unfunded earmark mandates, but the earmarks also kept Hubble going through the period when it was to be killed; and SIM right now is kept alive on an earmark.
If the budget reverts to plain 2006 with no earmarks and no supplements, then Terrestrial Planet Finder and Space Interferometry Mission are in even more serious trouble.
NYTimes article on this here - H/T Quantum Pontiff
I guess next we get to be depressed about the news at NASA
Comments
Are you heading to the "town hall"? I have one perspective on what is going to be said there, but others would be interesting.
Posted by: Brad Holden | January 8, 2007 12:37 PM