Sometime later today President Obama will sign a bill to raise the debt ceiling, preventing America from defaulting, which would have been a disaster. However, the bill is in it of itself a disaster and a failure on the part of President Obama, someone who in general that I strongly support. What does all this …
The Republican Party is really the “kill them all and let God sort them out” kind of party. Their latest craziness in the arena of science is toying with the notion of shutting down the NIH entirely or at least the ability of NIH to issue any new grants. So perhaps their new mantra is …
Kill them all and let God sort them out: what happens if the Republicans shut down NIH? Read More »
A week ago Jon Huntsman launched his campaign to be the next President of the United States (POTUS). The rumblings going around is that Huntsman, Obama’s former ambassador to China, is too smart and too normal to get the Republican nomination for POTUS. Huntsman even got an early and unexpected endorsement from Senate Majority Leader, …
Is Huntsman too normal to be the Republican nominee? What would he do on stem cells? Read More »
Tonight the Republican candidates for President of the United States will face off in their first fully-attended debate. The frontrunner by far to win the Republican nomination and face President Obama in the Fall of 2012 is Mitt Romney. Although that is not saying a whole lot given the weakness of the Republican group of …
President Romney and stem cells: the road to disaster Read More »
A version of the compromise budget deal for the remainder of this fiscal year has been released. This is the bill that the House and Senate are supposed to pass this week, and that President Obama must sign by Friday to prevent the Federal Government from shutting down. Originally, Republicans were aiming to cut the …
The uncertainty regarding the Federal FY2011 budget has taken a big toll on many throughout the country, including the biomedical science community. Given the fiscal uncertainty, NIH has been forced to wait to make decisions on a host of research proposals. Congress has really given NIH no other option but to wait. In turn, scores …
Riding the science budget rollercoaster: time to hurl or cheer? Read More »
How are things looking for the stem cell field for Spring 2011? Issue One. Getting to the clinic. At this point, Geron and ACT have their FDA-approved clinical trials underway using derivatives of human embryonic stem cells. As expected no news has leaked out on how things are going and it may well be Fall …
Part of the Republican’s so-called “Pledge to America” was to cut $100 billion from the federal budget. Even though fiscal year 2011 is already almost half over, Republicans driven by Tea Party Mad Hatters have proposed to cut $100 billion from the budget for this year, increasing their proposed cuts of many programs including deeper …
Everyone has been understandably stressed about how the ongoing federal legislative process might effect funding for research including stem cell research. Particularly worrisome was the proposal from the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives to cut $100 billion from the budget. Today brought news (reported at one of my favorite blogs, The Great Beyond) that in …
Great news: Initial GOP list of proposed cuts mostly spares NIH! Read More »
Last night President Obama gave a state of the union speech. He seemed appropriately somber given the many issues facing the country. One issue of particular importance is the federal budget and the deficit. Will Obama strongly get behind biomedical research and request budget increases for 2011 for NIH and NSF? If not, then the …