Originally Posted by
Whiteshell001:
At long last the US has an articulate and intelligent president. Unfortunately the president can not repair the education system or reverse the damage from neglect overnight. It takes 10-15 years to make a scientist, much longer than a presidential term. By appointing such a high quality team of advisors, Obama is giving high school students role models to emulate. In 15 years those students could be starting careers in science. I hope that Obama also takes steps to reward the best and brightest aspiring scientists with scholarships to ensure that they realize their potential regardless of their family's economic status.
Actually our new President is an idiot. This OP is without merit as Bush spent record levels on science. Obama won't have anything left to spend as it all went to Wallstreet and the unions. So here you go, try educating yourselves before you post obvious untruths.
Oct 31, 2008
Has Bush been good for science?
As US President George W Bush’s eight-year term in office comes to an end, his official science advisor John H Marburger argues that science in the US is flourishing following a decade of increased federal spending
Today, the scientific enterprise in the US is strong, highly productive and significantly greater than it was eight years ago. Contrary to popular mythology, President Bush has devoted more attention to science and technology in his official actions than most of his predecessors. Strains and imbalances exist among the various research fields, but the Bush administration has initiated programmes to address many of these on a prioritized basis. However, despite the magnitude of competing national needs and fiscal constraints affecting all domestic federal programmes, science in the US has moved forward substantially during the Bush years.
About one-third of US research and development (R&D) funding comes from federal sources appropriated by Congress, with most of the rest coming from the private sector. The total spent on R&D — $368bn in 2007 — remains remarkably steady year on year as a fraction of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at about 2.7%. This is the highest figure of any large economy except Japan, where the proportion is 3.4%, and South Korea, where it is 3.2%. China, in contrast, ploughs back just 1.4% of GDP into research.
The federal portion of R&D for 2008 is $144bn. This is 12.7% of the “discretionary budget” — the part that is subject to the annual budgeting process and that excludes “mandatory” expenditures for social security, medical insurance and interest on the national debt. This figure is now higher than at the start of the Bush administration in 2001, when it was 12.3%.
Story continues: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/36445
Edited by griv - Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:01:47 UTC
Edited by griv - Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:03:04 UTC
