Comments on: Trump proposes an increase in science spending in 2021 https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/trump-proposes-an-increase-in-science-spending-in-2021/ Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:26:21 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Robert Zimmerman https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/trump-proposes-an-increase-in-science-spending-in-2021/#comment-1076479 Wed, 12 Feb 2020 14:26:21 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=63545#comment-1076479 In reply to Saxby Fox.

Saxby Fox: Your point is taken. I should have inserted some reference to the fact that, when compared with the previous budget amounts, imposed by Congress, Trump’s budget does attempt to impose some budget discipline. I have made this correction.

Nonetheless, my point is that Trump’s cuts do little to actually cut anything. Worse, we all know that Congress will ignore them anyway and up the budget again.

]]> By: Saxby Fox https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/trump-proposes-an-increase-in-science-spending-in-2021/#comment-1076475 Wed, 12 Feb 2020 12:54:36 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=63545#comment-1076475 Interesting. I see that if you use FY20 numbers things look a lot different. For instance, NIH received 41.46 billion from Congress compared to the FY21 presidential proposal of 36.97. Seems to me like that is a cut of almost 4.5 billion. NOAA was funded at 5.49B last year. Trump proposes cutting that to 4.63B this year, another cut. DOE office of science was $7 Billion last year. Trump proposes to cut it to 6.3B this year, a 7 million dollar cut. EPA was funded at 6.068M in FY20. Trump is pushing for 6.658M this year, a small plus up. NASA does well in FY21 request but a lot of science is cut while hardware gets a big boost.

But probably most important is that the Congress, and not the President, controls the purse strings.

]]>