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Category: Blog

Created on Monday, 15 August 2011 20:26

Last Updated on Friday, 18 January 2013 11:53

Written by Administrator

• Winston Churchill

Posted: October 1, 2008

is famously said to have decreed that no one should see two things made, sausage and laws. What we are witnessing on Capital Hill in the wake of unprecedented turbulence in the financial markets would tend to confirm this notion. One need only know one thing about the “bailout” bill which failed so spectacularly earlier in the week. When it came from Treasury it was 3 pages long. The bill that the Senate will vote on tonight (and I suspect pass) is 465 pages (at this count). If it does not pass, rest assured it will grow in size and content until it does pass. Of course, this is only the Senate’s bill. The House members will now attach their own pet projects to the bill, and it will all be worked out in committee and then passed into law. Lest anyone think that any branch of the Government is blameless here, be assured that the White House has many irons in this 465 page fire also.

One reason that I believe it will pass (both houses) is that the normal vehicles for these spending and tax amendments are gone. That is, the budget process, has ground to a halt. President Bush vetoes (or threatens to) all Democratic spending bills, and maintains enough support to sustain them; and so the Democrats simply keep the Government running on continuing resolutions; and will do so until he leaves office. So the usual vehicle of Appropriations Bills is missing. This makes any legislation that actually MUST be signed by the President, a rare opportunity to insert whatever it is that a particular member feels compelled to push. The House members will be no different than the Senate members in this regard; and both parties are equal and willing participants. This is what legislating is really all about.

If this sounds odd to you, you must remember that we (the people who elect these people) are actually to blame. Regardless of how “historically low” the polls tell us Congressional Approval Ratings are; we send 90% + of them back every election. We “hate” Congress, but in fact “Love” our own representatives. We hate pork, but in fact demand that our own representatives bring home our “fair share”. We punish them if they don’t, and reward them if they do. It is just one (of many) interesting contradictions which lay at the base of the American Political System which seems to have so much wrong with it these days. It is a system so bad, that as Will Rogers is alleged to have said, it has only one thing going for it; it’s the best there is or ever was.

There are no Stem Cell spending ornaments hung on this particular Christmas tree. But they will come with the next Congress, and the next administration regardless of who wins. The increased spending may be part of a Health and Human Resources Appropriations bill, it might be part of the NIH budget, or it could be inserted in something totally unrelated, but it will come. In the end, there are few things which propel job growth and economic expansion as much as technology. And for either a McCain or Obama administration, the primary focus is going to have to be on rebuilding our economy, and that means our job base. There are few areas in which we still lead the world, high tech is one of them. Technologies which make cleaner use of existing energy sources; alternative energy sources and biotechnology are the areas I believe Congress will pour investment into along with rebuilding the Country’s infrastructure. And as Neuralstem and other Companies in our industry begin to move into the clinic, and treat patients, Stem Cell science will be front and center.