Sustaining The U.S. Budget

The tone of the article on President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal, “Affirming Science,” seems to be based on the premise that chemists care only about the size and number of research grants that will be up for grabs (C&EN, Feb. 27, page 38). Is this what passes for rationality in Washington, D.C.?

Chemists and others are talking more and more about the need for sustainability. Surely, chemists who have been educated to think analytically can grasp the concept that the politicians running the government cannot sustain year after year of spending more than the government takes in. Currently, 40% of the federal budget has to be borrowed every year. Even if every dollar of every millionaire and billionaire were confiscated by the Administration, it would not keep the federal government running for more than a year.

Business as usual will not keep working. It is time for serious people to be serious.

By Donald B. Boyd
Indianapolis