If you've never seen one of the hearings of the House Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology, here's a link to the 26 March hearing
on "A Review of the President's Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Request for
Science Agencies": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuVjambmQCM The
discussion about NSF funding starting at about minute 19 is enlightening.
Here's a Web site that presents a review (left-leaning perspective)
of the hearing if you don't want to watch the 2-hour
hearing:
http://io9.com/this-is-what-the-gops-war-on-science-looks-like-1556202056?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_facebook&utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow:
"Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-TX) set the tone of the hearing right
away, beginning with the observation, "Unfortunately, this
Administration's science budget focuses, in my view, far too much
money, time, and effort on alarmist predictions of climate change."
Smith then questioned Holdren about the National Science Foundation
(NSF), which, he said, was swindling American taxpayers by funding
apparently useless programs, such a $340,000 grant to study the
ecological consequences of early human-set fires in New Zealand."
