President Bush’s budget request for next year has been released. Surprising approximately no-one who has followed current events over the last seven years, it’s a mixed bag for science:
President Bush rolled out a 2008 spending plan Monday that disappointed advocates for scientific research, even as it called for hefty increases for several key programs in the physical sciences aimed at continuing the president’s drive to double such spending. While they applaud that goal, academic leaders are troubled by the fact that the administration’s budget plan, if adopted, would result in a reduction in funds for the National Institutes of Health, in relation to the months-late 2007 budget that Congress is on the verge of adopting.
[Y]eah, “double the federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years” sounds great. So does “If we reverse the polarity on the flux capacitor, we can generate an infinite amount of free energy, and a pony.” I’ll believe it when I see the pony.
Apparently, it’s not so much a pony as a pug dog with a saddle.