As many of you may already know, yesterday Sen. Tom Coburn (R-UT) offered his amendment to cut the National Science Foundation’s program in political science. To help enlighten my readers, many of whom I know are not political scientists, on Sen. Coburn’s reasoning for this amendment I thought it would be useful to post his floor speech. After listening to this I think it is clear that the Senator not only has no concept of the difference between basic and applied research, but quite frankly complete and utter contempt for the social sciences. In that vein, I also have posted Sen. Mikulski’s (D-MD) rebuttal, which will be of particular interest to those readers involved in basic research in national security.
Videos available for your viewing pleasure after the jump…
Sen. Coburn’s floor speech |
Sen. Mikulski’s rebuttal |
The highlight for me was the depth to which Sen. Coburn will sink by implying that funding political science research is “water-boarding the next generation.” It should be noted that political scientist were among the first to note the logical disconnect between torture and intelligence gathering.
I welcome everyone’s thoughts on both speeches, particularly if you feel more compelled to support Sen. Coburn’s amendment after hearing his speech. Finally, it appears that a vote on this amendment will not take place until later this week, as such I encourage anyone who has not yet signed my online petition to do so immediately!
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