Letâs look at what the Republicans in the Senate are currently fighting against in the stimulus bill:
- $40 billion in aid to state governments for education and other programs; money that economists say is a relatively efficient way to pump up the economy by preventing layoffs, cuts in services or tax increases.
- $20 billion for construction and repair of schools and university facilities. Those funds would have supported many construction jobs.
Short version: the Senate Republicans (including McCain and Kyl) are not willing to help their own states out when suffering an severe educational crisis. Letâs remember this come re-election time, shall we?
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The proposed economic stimulus package includes some funding for science.
Chunk for NSF, lot of facility funding.
NASA gets climate science.
DoE gets some toys.
Appropriations Stimulus 0115 (pdf)
The total package is somewhere in the $800+ billion range, as proposed.
With about 1/3 proposed as tax…
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Regarding the current financial crisis, a consensus has developed that the government needs to do something, and do something dramatic. The argument is, basically, that the normal sources of cash flow that might stimulate the economy out of recession have dried up, either through idiotic…
There is very clear path between technological superiority and military supremacy. There is equally clear path between technological superiority and economic success. Technological superiority requires an educated populace and a commitment to R&D and to fundamental science.
The Republicans love to crow about their superior patriotism and their unwavering commitment to national security. Just one more reason they deserved to get thrown out of office. They are not just clueless, they are proud of their ignorance.
Okay, but at a bare minimum what do they *say* they're fighting against? What's the most plausible of the "con" arguments? There's always some kind of justification (though not always a sound one). And of course sometimes senators quite validly vote against theoretically positive bills because of horrible pork attached to it, etc..
I'm not saying I support the conservatives -- when I dig up enough info I hardly ever do -- but I still don't feel like I know anything about the situation (I know, I know, I gotta do the research... I'll get to it).
I always get pissed off when conservatives post nonsense like "Look, the Democrats are voting against families! Remember this when you vote..."; so to be fair I can't support the same kind of approach on the liberal side.
Kevin, you're projecting.
This is intended to be a short term stimulus for the economy, not grab bag for Democratic party interests with party favors for select demographics.
I'm all for increased science funding, but let congress generate a specific appropriation with debate, not rush through a compilation of a billion different funding requests en masse with a week to look it over and virtually no comprehensive debate. A trillion + is a lot of money, mmkay, so why don't we take our time and do it right.
WTF is the rush?
What's the rush?
Well, I supposed if your hours/pay had been cut by 20%, and/or you were watching people all around you get terminated like flies, it might put a bit of an urgency spin on the whole thing. There's a fine line between undue haste and disastrous procrastinating and I'm sure there are people on either side of the debate who have good points, but things are getting ugly very quickly.
Putting the package together too quickly still gives the opportunity to tweak and refine it later, but wait too long and there might not be a chance to pull things back.
Yes, we in Arizona have quite a few people to vote out of office - the sooner the better.