Preface: This is just a reminder. Although I document the HPS world here, this is actually my personal blog. The below post is entirely my personal opinion.
I don’t know about you, but this stimulus plan and the surrounding debate is giving me a headache. It’s pulling at me on several levels, torn between the large unmet and ignored needs in our country, and the hefty price tag.
We all have our special interests, our pet issues and not surprisingly, mine is funding for medical research. I’m always going to push what I think is in the best interest of HPS research. I have to. No one else besides those impacted by HPS really cares.
The sad reality is so many aspects of our economic development life have been so woefully attended to during these past years that the needs are great. The science community in general is a perfect example. The repair that needs to be done to certain programs is huge – as the oversight needed to ensure money isn’t wasted.
The government tends to be good at wasting money. The trouble I find with some of my more conservative friends is they tend to attack the money instead of attacking the waste.
I was thrilled to see increased funding for the NIH. It looks like most of the funds will go to one-time grants. Considering the decrease in the number of grants the NIH has been able to make in recent years, perhaps this will help fund a ground swell of new ideas, and thus new business opportunities. And just maybe one or two of those grants will go to some brilliant mind working on protein trafficking research, or surfactant research, which just might help to spark another idea and another to eventually crack part of the HPS mystery.
The thing is we won’t see the full benefit of those funds for years.
That’s the way it is with much of this package. Could it really be any other way?
There seems to be this expectation that if this package passes, and if it’s successful, we’re going to see some sort of magical turn around, as though someone has waved a magic wand.
But our economy didn’t come to a screeching halt all at once (even if we weren’t all aware of it) and it surely won’t recover at the flip of an economic switch. It’s more like a steam engine that needs lots of room to stop, and then a chance to build up lots of steam to start again. We need to get used to it – this mess didn’t happen overnight and it could take years to clean up.
I have a number of friends who are considerably more conservative than I am. The other day one of them sent me an e-mail with a list of various government departments (not programs) that would get money under the stimulus package. I guess I really am a bleeding heart because I read it and thought, so, what’s your point?
The same day I was listening to a conservative commentator on Christian radio dogging on the bill. He too pointed out money being spent on various government departments. His argument against this, however, was light on economic theory and heavy on one-off examples of programs he found morally objectionable. Okay – I agree. The government isn’t perfect. There are lots of programs out there I’m not crazy about either. But you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
My overall concerns about the bill is that it will too easily become a free-for-all barrel of pork, rammed through Congress with the threat of economic meltdown, making just a tad too easy for everyone to add their own little pork projects.
The overall amount of this bill seems to yoyo in media reports, and that just makes me even more nervous.
Look. We need to do something. We need to spend some resources on our country and now’s the perfect time to do it. But politicians who would see this as a political opportunity to push through pet projects they couldn’t get done any other way should take heed – in the end that’s not going to help any of us. We, as the public, need to shame them on such issues.
The trouble is what’s pork, and what’s stimulus? One person’s stimulus plan is another person’s pork project. I like the NIH funding. I see the stimulating potential, even if it isn’t all immediate. But that’s me. Whose pork will win out? I hope mine does. I think it’s worth it. I guess shame on me.
There’s a lot of money in this bill for science beyond the NIH. I’m also loving that, but I do have one worry.
I often tell impatient HPS’ers that research moves at the speed of science. Sometimes good science can take time. It often requires careful review and constructive criticism. I am a tad worried that some of the wonderful funds coming in the direction of various research entities will be wasted because of pressure to get them spent immediately. I’m worried that there might be pressure to get the checks written, rather than find the best projects with the most sound scientific foundations.
I’m just a gal in the suburbs of Kansas – what do I know. Just a thought.
I don’t know about you, but this stimulus plan and the surrounding debate is giving me a headache. It’s pulling at me on several levels, torn between the large unmet and ignored needs in our country, and the hefty price tag.
We all have our special interests, our pet issues and not surprisingly, mine is funding for medical research. I’m always going to push what I think is in the best interest of HPS research. I have to. No one else besides those impacted by HPS really cares.
The sad reality is so many aspects of our economic development life have been so woefully attended to during these past years that the needs are great. The science community in general is a perfect example. The repair that needs to be done to certain programs is huge – as the oversight needed to ensure money isn’t wasted.
The government tends to be good at wasting money. The trouble I find with some of my more conservative friends is they tend to attack the money instead of attacking the waste.
I was thrilled to see increased funding for the NIH. It looks like most of the funds will go to one-time grants. Considering the decrease in the number of grants the NIH has been able to make in recent years, perhaps this will help fund a ground swell of new ideas, and thus new business opportunities. And just maybe one or two of those grants will go to some brilliant mind working on protein trafficking research, or surfactant research, which just might help to spark another idea and another to eventually crack part of the HPS mystery.
The thing is we won’t see the full benefit of those funds for years.
That’s the way it is with much of this package. Could it really be any other way?
There seems to be this expectation that if this package passes, and if it’s successful, we’re going to see some sort of magical turn around, as though someone has waved a magic wand.
But our economy didn’t come to a screeching halt all at once (even if we weren’t all aware of it) and it surely won’t recover at the flip of an economic switch. It’s more like a steam engine that needs lots of room to stop, and then a chance to build up lots of steam to start again. We need to get used to it – this mess didn’t happen overnight and it could take years to clean up.
I have a number of friends who are considerably more conservative than I am. The other day one of them sent me an e-mail with a list of various government departments (not programs) that would get money under the stimulus package. I guess I really am a bleeding heart because I read it and thought, so, what’s your point?
The same day I was listening to a conservative commentator on Christian radio dogging on the bill. He too pointed out money being spent on various government departments. His argument against this, however, was light on economic theory and heavy on one-off examples of programs he found morally objectionable. Okay – I agree. The government isn’t perfect. There are lots of programs out there I’m not crazy about either. But you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
My overall concerns about the bill is that it will too easily become a free-for-all barrel of pork, rammed through Congress with the threat of economic meltdown, making just a tad too easy for everyone to add their own little pork projects.
The overall amount of this bill seems to yoyo in media reports, and that just makes me even more nervous.
Look. We need to do something. We need to spend some resources on our country and now’s the perfect time to do it. But politicians who would see this as a political opportunity to push through pet projects they couldn’t get done any other way should take heed – in the end that’s not going to help any of us. We, as the public, need to shame them on such issues.
The trouble is what’s pork, and what’s stimulus? One person’s stimulus plan is another person’s pork project. I like the NIH funding. I see the stimulating potential, even if it isn’t all immediate. But that’s me. Whose pork will win out? I hope mine does. I think it’s worth it. I guess shame on me.
There’s a lot of money in this bill for science beyond the NIH. I’m also loving that, but I do have one worry.
I often tell impatient HPS’ers that research moves at the speed of science. Sometimes good science can take time. It often requires careful review and constructive criticism. I am a tad worried that some of the wonderful funds coming in the direction of various research entities will be wasted because of pressure to get them spent immediately. I’m worried that there might be pressure to get the checks written, rather than find the best projects with the most sound scientific foundations.
I’m just a gal in the suburbs of Kansas – what do I know. Just a thought.
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