Democrats are stifling science

A while back I got into a little to-do with a Bad Astronomer who got political. He fully felt, along with a lot of academic science folks, that Republicans were bad on science. He noted a couple of reasons why. I noted a couple of reasons why not. Immediately after the election and the Democrats took over, I made a prediction on what NASA could expect for the next two years.

I see a bad moon on the rise. I’m sure the science community still has their blinders on. They got what they wanted, so how can they criticize? Expect NASA funding to be slashed along with the things that are not the “best return on its investment” as deemed by Bart Gordon. I mean, how exactly will they determine what science is the best return for NASA’s investment?

My prediction was totally ignored since I didn’t publish it as a for-profit venture in the form of a paperback. Well, imagine my surprise, or lack thereof, when I read this today on the Bad Astronomer’s blog:

But this year, it��s even bleaker: Congress told agencies that they can keep going, but they have to use their FY 06 budget. That may not sound so bad, but what it translates to is that any project expecting more money in the FY 07 budget isn��t going to get it. This leaves the administrations scrambling to reallocate funds to feed starving projects.

So, Chris Mooney and Phil, what do you guys think of the Democrat War on Science so far? Five days, $500 million cut from NASA. How much was cut from NASA in 2001-2006? ( Clue here, the budget was $14.2 billion in 2001, $16.5 billion in 2006 ).