Trump's Pick for Budget Director Isn't Sure the Government Should Fund Scientific Research [View all]

[JHan]

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/trumps-pick-budget-director-isnt-sure-government-should-fund-scientific-research

If confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Mulvaney, a deficit hawk who recently spoke before a chapter of the right-wing-fringe John Birch Society, would be in charge of crafting Trump's budget and overseeing the functioning of federal agencies. One thing he seems to believe the budget and the agencies should not be funding is research into diseases like the Zika virus.

Two weeks before Congress finally passed more than $1 billion to fight the spread of Zika and its effects, Mulvaney questioned whether the government should fund any scientific research. "[D]o we need government-funded research at all," he wrote in a Facebook post on September 9 unearthed by the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge. Mulvaney appears to have deleted his Facebook page since then.

If there wasn't a trend to Trump's cabinet picks I would be less worried, but all of them believe in regressive, anarcho-capitalist "the market will solve it" principles.

And we're screwed anyway: Trump already wants to scrap climate change research.

If Mulvaney guts funding, and you're an epidemiologist whose area of expertise is vaccines, and you don't depend on funding from pharmaceutical companies to avoid conflict of interest, you're screwed.

Our Government research agencies are the bedrock for R&D, gutting agencies will see us lose ground to China and Russia, and affect researchers or all stripes directly.

#GoodGoingAmerica
#YouDidIt