No. of Recommendations: 21
"Perhaps another tack that could be taken in such a discussion would be to consider just how crazy it is for the US Government to be continuing spending "as usual" now that we have a debt of $34 Trillion and an annual deficit of $2 Trillion and now that our "credit card payments" (spending on servicing the existing debt) exceed our spending on our own (and more than 1/2 the world's) defense budget.
You all sound like people who would recoil instinctively from a relative who was digging this same kind of hole for herself by living off her credit cards. You would possibly even, like me, not even be able to guess what happens when you keep driving that bus at 75 mph towards the cliff.
A fun question to ask: just what spending cuts would you recommend to such a relative that would seem like crazy counterproductive spending cuts if the relatives had, say for example's sake, no credit card debt?
And from there, a comparison of how being disinvited to a graduate program because of a loss of reserarch funding would compare to the kinds of things we might imagine happen if we continued driving the bus towards the cliff for another 6 months, another year, whatever."
For one, it is silly to think the deficit can be addressed by cutting scientific research. Scientific research isn't even a minor factor in the budget. it is less than a rounding error.
For two, it is short sighted. To use your analogy of family budgeting. It is like a family cutting out fruits and vegetables from the grocery list and buying potato chips and cookies instead in order to save money all while going on lavish vacations and driving expensive cars. The savings are negligible compared to the rest of the budget and will likely cost more in healthcare costs in the long run.
Besides, there is a lot of evidence that federal money spent on research more than pays for itself in the long run from benefits that come from that research.
If the deficit is going to be addressed there are 4 major factors that need to be looked at: Entitlement spending, military spending, and interest payments are the biggest budgetary categories, but probably the most important factor is the way the U.S. collects tax revenues. It is insane, wasteful and subject to special interests.
