The Alchemist

The Alchemist blog was created to help companies with breakthrough technologies obtain government funding. Its focus is on Congressional earmarks, federal marketing and busines development. The Alchemist also deals with issues at the intersection of science, technology, business, politics and government. Comments to the Alchemist are welcome, but those that include profanity, personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will not be posted on the site.

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Posted by: Alan Dillingham	Friday, October 10, 2008 9:37 AM
During the course of Tuesday night’s presidential debate, John McCain criticized Barack Obama over his support for a $3 million earmark for an “overhead projector“ at the Adler planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. “My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?” McCain asked the audience. In a statement the Adler planetarium defended the request, pointing out that the projector in question was not an overhead projector, but the instrument that recreates the night sky inside a domed theater, and central to its mission. “(I)t is vital that we educate and inspire the next generation of explorers to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math," the statement went on to say., Do we need to spend money on science education? McCain’s comments sparked a mini-storm of comments in the blogosphere among science fans. You can read a sampling of them on Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log. Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that Congress can easily override any McCain veto to spending bills with earmarks (See our October 3 blog entry.) The fact is that earmarks are a small percentage of the deficit and an even smaller percentage of federal spending. Furthermore, cutting earmarks won’t reduce spending at all, since decisions about earmarks are made after Congress determines the overall level of federal spending. There are good earmarks and bad earmarks. This looks like a good one. Many Congressional earmarks go for science and technology projects. In fact, Congress regularly increases federal funding for research and development over presidential budget requests.

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