$$$$ Talks

The days certainly are getting away from me quite quickly.  Between a rather inordinate amount of lab work and being unable to sleep it has not been good.  But enough about me, we got stuff to discuss for a bit!  Today's topic is actually a topic for tomorrow, the infamous SEQUESTRATION!!!  Dun dun duuuuun!

For those uninitiated, tomorrow (March 1) is the deadline for our 'wonderful' Congress to come up with a budget for the fiscal year that we're *checks watch* almost halfway through.  If they do not, about $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts occurs across all walks of government: defense, education, energy, security, etc.  The most important for me, obviously, are the cuts to SCIENCE!.  Basically this is a key step in reducing the deficit.  From whitehouse.gov:

We have a lot of debt as a country, and this is one way to stave it off for a bit.

Here's the problem that I have.  Across the board cuts (obviously) include everything.  Science is part of that.  Whenever there are acts in Congress to decrease spending across the board, science is always hit.  The issue is that, since the Clinton era, science has never really been a high priority with presidents.  Clinton increased scientific funding massively, but Congress essentially said 'where are all the cures?  We spent all this money, now where are the results?'  Science takes TIME.  In some cases a great deal of time:

30 years and $2 billion to approval

30 years is a long time, even for drug discovery.  Even for a new, groundbreaking type of drug.  This is more typical:

Between basic research, drug trials, and other testing, drugs typically take 12-15 years to gain FDA approval

It's no wonder the Clinton administration didn't see any immediate results.  It's because they take time.  Congress, however, doesn't seem to realize this. It's really no surprise, though, as there is a physicist and a microbiologist working in Congress (between the House and Senate).  Plus 32 'Health Professionals' if you'd like to count them.  So 2.  2 Actual, REAL, SCIENTISTS working in Congress.  It's no wonder they don't understand the implications of cutting research funding!!!  Everyone's all business and law!  At least, the majority are.  And no, we don't count the 'Christian Scientists', people.

Accurate as of January 11, 2013

Anyway, back to the nitty gritty.  According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, publishers of the journal Science), federal R&D programs of all sorts (including defense) stand to lose about $8.7 billion, which is about 6% of the proposed $142 billion.  While it may not seem like a lot, the majority of that money is going to be coming out of research grants.  Salaried people still need their salaries, utilities must be paid, etc.  $8.7 billion is a lot of money for research as a whole.  When you're talking about labs surviving on ~$0.5 million for 5 years, $8.7 billion can do a lot of good.  Granted, once again, this is ALL R&D, including defense.  And those guys spend money like.... ummm.... a really rich rapper in a music video.  While it isn't specified how hard hit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be, they did say that both continuing grants and new grants (new ones already having barely 10% funded) will be hit: Click here for the official NIH notice.

Rep Jim McDermott (D-WA) submitted a bill, lovingly called the Medical Research Protection Act, which would save the NIH from the sequestration, but it doesn't look good as of now.

*sigh*.... The whole thing just seems completely ludicrous to me; they set a deadline for themselves to motivate decision making and compromise, then delay the deadline, and STILL can't come up with anything.  Here's a great idea, at the top of the list for things to cut, write this:

Congressional Salaries

That'll get their butts in gear to actually do what they were elected to.  Or they'd delay some more until they could find a way to change it -.-

If you're interested, check out This White House link to see how your state specifically will be affected.  Most are similar issues of jobs, economic security, etc., but there are some nasty education cuts that are at the top of the Texas list.  Very unfortunate.

That's it for me, I hope that you enjoyed reading this and that is opened your eyes a bit to some of the sequestration's devastation.  See you next time!