| One of the late bipartisan achievements of the Bush Administration was the America COMPETES act which aimed to increase research and development funding in certain engineering and science areas, and support science education. The 10-year process of doubling this R&D funding (7% per year) requires a new authorization this year. (The same kind of increase was done successfully with National Institute of Health funding over the previous decade.)
The 2007 bill so was so bipartisan that every New Jersey Representative voted for it. Frank LoBiondo supported it. Yes, even Scott Garrett supported it. This is "mom and apple pie" stuff because we know that such government funding is paid back in economic growth. The nations we are competing with are investing heavily even as our private sector abandons basic research.
But that was before the Party of No. Now, the Republicans voted to kill the bill:
House Democrats had to scrap their only substantive bill of the week Thursday after Republicans won a procedural vote that substantively altered the legislation with an anti-porn clause....
But the Republican motion to recommit the bill -- a parliamentary tactic that gives the minority one final chance to amend legislation -- contained language prohibiting federal funds from going "to salaries to those officially disciplined for violations regarding the viewing, downloading, or exchanging of pornography, including child pornography, on a federal computer or while performing official government duties."
That provision scared dozens of Democrats into voting with Republicans to approve the motion to recommit. After it became clear the GOP motion was going to pass, dozens of additional Democrats changed their votes from "no" to "yes." In the end, 121 Democrats voted with Republicans -- only four fewer than the number of Democrats who voted with their party.
Of course the porn thing is just an attempt to sink the very bill these Republicans supported. (Why Democrats worry about this nonsense is beyond me, though to be fair many say Rahm popularized the tactic when Democrats were in the minority.) The Roll Call vote is here. The Republicans don't have an ounce of integrity and are trying to paralyze the government in a time of crisis by even destroying things they support.
ps. If you saw "scared Democrat" and thought John Adler you're right. That's what I predicted we'll see again and again. No other New Jersey Democrat voted for the Republican sham. Remember that this tactic would not work without cowardly Democrats. (Runyan, of course, would be even worse.) |
