I apologize in advance this is mostly just an angry tirade. I'm a little PO'ed at the moment. It will pass I'm sure.
My dear Eric:
How about you do something important to balance the budget like:
* cutting the corporate welfare practice of corn subsidies,
* eliminating over priced defense contracts that our armed forces don't want or need but exist only because defense contractors are so good at lobbying,
* getting the HELL out of a LAND WAR IN ASIA,
* allowing the Bush Tax Cuts to expire,
* STOP GIVING AWAY MONEY TO BANKS WHO ONLY USE IT TO LEND IT RIGHT BACK TO THE FED AT 6% INTEREST
But your interests are not the interests of the Citizens of the United States, are they sir? This much is abundantly clear. How is this clear you ask?
You're proposing cutting the National Science Foundation. And you're doing it by misleading the public using two examples that are cherry picked and purposefully misrepresented. As you, sir, are misrepresenting the interests of Virginia.
The total budget of the NSF is less that ONE TENTH of the taxes on the wealthy you just extended. Even if you managed to eliminate every dime of the NSF's budget you couldn't even begin to repair the gaping fiduciary chest wound you inflicted upon the body public. This is a clear misdirection, nothing more than political maneuvering. And I'm sickened to think that it's probably going to work.
What has the NSF done for me? I'll give only one example. The Internet. Now think about how much the Internet has cost to develop and how much value it has generated. That kind of cost/benefit ratio is well worth our investment, far more than your oh so important tax cuts. And that's just one example. Even if every other project by the NSF before or since turned out to be a complete waste of time and money we're going to come out so far ahead in the end it's not even funny.
But this is the best part. You're not going to find any projects funded by the NSF which, when objectively considered, is a waste of time and money. Why?
The National Science Foundation's grants are already peer-reviewed!
We don't need mob-review. So STEP THE FUCK OFF my science you unconscionable prick and go fix something that actually needs fixing, rather than harvesting faux populous outrage in order to pander to your anti-intellectual base and distract the American public while you fleece them.
STFU, GTH, and DIAF
Thank you for your attention.
Your loving fan,
Mike