$16 Billion Is The Golden Ticket!

By Sadiya Bruce
The Peanut Gallery
on Commerce, Science & Transport:

Let’s fast forward to today, right now in committee session III. The delegates of the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Technology committee return to the battlefield for another session of controversy and heated arguments.

With $16 billion from President Obama’s 2009 Stimulus Bill at hand, this money is the golden ticket to a new age of American science. However, delegates are struggling with where to focus the funding or whether to distribute the money on one specific division of science at all.

A Democratic Senator from Arkansas wants to focus the funding on agriculture techniques and green technology, two very important areas with the recent crisis of Mt. Sinaburg’s volcano eruption. Yet, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) reminded all in the room that science is “more about the people and how to make it better for the people.” He followed up by suggesting that all of the money should not be billed to a specific thing because there wouldn’t be any job creations, so why expand?

Essentially, with the recent crisis in mind, Senator Coburn agrees with the medical and agricultural field deserving some attention, placing the primary focus on agriculture. Even though Senator Coburn doesn’t support stem cell research, he does believe that the medical field should not be funded solely on cancer solutions, but also other ways to produce bone marrow.

As a short caucus is in motion, the delegates were buzzing about the complex financial distribution at question: how much to give, where to give it to, and when should it be given. Time is running out for golden ticket until the committee agrees on the lucky one to get the ticket.