Prioritized Spending

As you gather together your year-end financial statements, I thought you might like to know where some of your money will be going next year. As a scientist, I am particular interested in seeing how the US government will fund research and education. Here is a sampling of budgets, by department, for 2006:

DEPARTMENT: $$ (up or down from 2005)
1. Department of Defense: $419.3 billion (up 5%, does not include Veterans Affairs)
2. Department of Education: $56 billion (down 1%)
3. Department of Interior (includes National Park Service and BLM): $10.6 billion (down 1%)
4. Environmental Protection Agency: $7.6 billion (down 6%)
5. NASA: $16.5 billion (up 2%)
6. National Science Foundation: $5.6 billion (up 2%, but with new mandatory non-research costs that eat up that increase)
7. Social Security Administration: $9.5 billion (up 8%)
8. Health and Human Services: $67.2 billion (down 1%)
8b. The National Institutes of Health (part of Health and Human Services): $28.6 billion (down 0.5%, the first decrease in NIH budget since 1970)

(all figures taken from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/budget.html)

In order for the budgets above to keep up with inflation, they would need to increase by 2.4% (according to CIA factbook).

What is particularly troubling to me, of course, is the drop in funding to the NIH at a time when bio-medical research costs are increasing much faster than inflation. This means that only about 1 in 8 research project grants are being funded (as compared to five years ago when it was 1 in 4).

As long as we're counting beans:

War in Iraq: $175 billion (the figure approved by Congress) or $230 billion (the figure calculated by CostOfWar.com)

Happy Spending Everyone!

10 Feet from the Edge

Before you read this blog, I suggest you go measure 10 feet. I would not want you to think that 10 feet is a large distance, because it is not.

Friday, December 9th, my wife and I went to Buffalo, NY to see U2. We had General Admission Floor tickets. As they scanned my wife's ticket, she was randomly selected for a spot in the inner "ellipse" of the stage! Yes, I got to accompany her.

We were some of the first to arrive so we got a place right up by the railing and to the side where the Edge plays. Remember how far 10 feet is? Well, that is how far the Edge was from us for 2 1/2 hours! Okay, so occasionally he would walk closer--about 3 feet away--and occasionally it was Bono or Adam Clayton who would come up close. What an amazing experience!

The concert was superb and the music was right on. There were a lot of Beatles/John Lennon tribute songs because it was the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's murder. I was disappointed that they did not play all of the songs from the newest album. Those left out were some of the best: "All Because of You" and "Man and a Woman." One song left out had a big U2-like message: "Crumbs from Your Table" so I was very surprised they didn't sing it, especially when Bono talked a lot that night about Africa and the One Campaign. The last two songs left out: "Miracle Drug" and "One Step Closer". So out of the 11 songs on the album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, they played only six.

I was extremely happy to hear "Miss Sarajevo" that night. It is one of my favorite U2 songs and I think it is by far the most moving.

There are only a few dates left--and I know some of you who read this are in Utah (2nd to the last stop). Get tickets and GO TO THIS CONCERT!