Members of Congress do a lot of talking about their commitment to research into sustainable energy alternatives to fossil fuels, but the fact is that spending on scientific research into energy alternatives has been decreased by Congress for the last two years in a row.
From the start, H.R. 2354 reduced spending on alternative energy research in the Department of Energy by 43 million dollars. That wasn’t enough for U.S. Representative Edward Royce. Congressman Royce introduced an amendment to the legislation to reduce the budget for alternative energy research by an additional 10 million dollars.
Royce justified his defunding of science by saying that it’s necessary for the reduction of the budget deficit. However, 10 million dollars, though it can fund a good amount of important science, is an extremely small amount in the scale of the federal budget. What’s needed to solve the budget deficit is tax increases plus the reduction of billions of dollars in spending, rather than just the savings of a few millions.
Recently, Barney Frank offered an amendment to cut 8.5 billion dollars in spending. 80 percent of Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against that legislation, though.
The following are the names of the 99 House Republicans who voted against reducing billions of dollars from the federal budget, but then voted to kill 10 million dollars worth of important science, pretending that 10 million dollars would make a significant dent in the deficit:
Sandy Adams, Todd Akin, Michele Bachmann, Gus Bilirakis, Rob Bishop, Diane Black, Marsha Blackburn, Mary Bono Mack, Charles Boustany, Paul Broun, Vern Buchanan, Michael Burgess, Dan Burton, Ken Calvert, Francisco Canseco, Eric Cantor, Steven Chabot, Mike Coffman, Michael Conaway, Jim Costa, Chip Cravaack, Jeff Denham, Blake Farenthold, Stephen Fincher, Jeff Flake, John Fleming, Bill Flores, Virginia Foxx, Trent Franks, Elton Gallegly, Cory Gardner, Scott Garrett, John Gingrey, Louis Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Trey Gowdy, Samuel Graves, Tim Griffin, Michael Grimm, Brett Guthrie, Andy Harris, Vicky Hartzler, Jeb Hensarling, Walter Herger, Tim Huelskamp, Duncan Hunter, Robert Hurt, Darrell Issa, Lynn Jenkins, Samuel Johnson, Steve King, Peter King, Jack Kingston, John Kline, Jeff Landry, Jerry Lewis, Billy Long, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Daniel Lungren, Thomas Marino, Kevin McCarthy, Michael McCaul, Howard McKeon, John Mica, Jeff Miller, Candice Miller, Tim Murphy, Randy Neugebauer, Richard Nugent, Devin Nunes, Alan Nunnelee, William Owens, Erik Paulsen, Stevan Pearce, Mike Pence, Joseph Pitts, Ted Poe, Mike Pompeo, Bill Posey, Tom Price, Ben Quayle, Phil Roe, Thomas Rooney, Dennis Ross, Paul Ryan, Steve Scalise, Jean Schmidt, Austin Scott, Pete Sessions, John Shimkus, Christopher Smith, Mac Thornberry, Scott Tipton, Timothy Walberg, Daniel Webster, Allen West, Lynn Westmoreland, Joe Wilson, Todd Young
It is fortunate that these dishonest, short-sighted politicians didn’t win the day. They lost the vote. Edward Royce’s anti-science amendment was voted down, with just 136 voting in favor and 291 voting against.
The GOP representatives stopped a Democratic plot to reduce spending on defense, yet refused to go along with tossing a couple of million on another “perpetual motion” machine, and yet the GOP came out the heavy?
“Important science” that will wean us off fossil fuel will be financed by the marketplace, not government subsidies.
Norm, why is it, if the free market really will work to wean us off fossil fuels, that it hasn’t done so already?
If the free market is really better at doing things than the government, how come you don’t approve of the defunding of the military, allowing the free market to pick up the slack?
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