To quote “Science in the News Weekly”, Issue: 3 Volume: 5 –
“Federal Budget Freeze Straps American Science
The incoming 110th U.S. Congress has decided to keep most federal agencies operating under their current budgets until the fall, calling for an unexpected belt-tightening that could mean potentially grievous effects for American science, federal and private officials told the New York Times.
Last year Congress passed spending bills only for the military and for domestic security, leaving another nine bills hanging. Without new funding, the affected agencies must operate under their 2006 budgets until the next fiscal year. When the effects of inflation are considered, that means a real reduction in federal financing of 3 percent to 4 percent for most fields of science.
The flat budget is especially disappointing because Congress and the White House had discussed major increases for the physical sciences in 2007, and many schools and federal labs had been preparing for an influx of new funds. Instead, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will close for a month, and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory may shut down, leaving 1,069 specialists in limbo. “Things are pretty miserable for a year in which people talked a lot about regaining our competitive edge,” said Brookhaven director Sam Aronson. “I think all that’s stalled.” ”
I have all sorts of places I could run with this, but there’s only one I want to focus on: not increasing governmental budgets is a Good Thingâ„¢. It means that taxes do not need to go up. It also implies that the last budget approval process was generous enough that those receiving funds don’t need more – it might even imply that those who received funds actually acted like a business and tried to come in under (or at) budget.
Budget growth is almost always BAD when the government is doing it. It can be good if somebody else is doing it – but only if it’s justifiable. Spending more money for the sake of spending more money is stupid. Spend more money when a project demands it (ie you’re employing more people or doing good research). Spend the same amount of money (or better yet less money) when at all possible.
This is basic management and economics, folks.