Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: The Senate action on the NSF Budget -- Opposing views (or supporting )
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 04:16:29 -0500
To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber) Cc: interesting-people () eff org (interesting-people mailing list), gnu () toad com Subject: Re: The Senate action on the NSF Budget Date: Tue, 14 Sep 93 21:17:46 -0700 From: gnu () toad com
The Mikulsky Committee voted on the NSF budget last Thursday. There budget recommendations are the usual - barely 2% increase, etc. The disastorous thing is the text which went with the bill. I have copied it below. It mandates that 60% of the funds be used for 'strategic' spending and has specific language safeguarding against the shrouding of 'curiosity driven' research as being strategic.
The Committee knew that some people would object to their attempts to jerk the chain of the "we do science -- you owe us money" crowd. But the committee is right. If you want to do science because you're curious, give me back my taxes and fund it yourself. Basic scientific research has historically never been funded by governments. It's been funded by visionaries, entrepreneurs, industries, and philanthropists. I don't think the taxpayers fall into any of those categories. It's time to end the Cold War free ride, guys. Make it pay, make it march, or find your own philanthropist! John Gilmore (whose 1988-91 Federal tax bill was close to $500K -- and they just raised the rates again)
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- Re: The Senate action on the NSF Budget -- Opposing views (or supporting ) David Farber (Sep 15)