Posted on 10/01/2004 8:18:26 PM PDT by JoeGOP
A century ago, a common sight in small towns was the itinerant peddler offering an amazing new elixir guaranteed to “cure whatever ails ya.” The peddler would make a small fortune, get out of town on the next stagecoach, and the gullible victims would be left with nothing to show for it but a lighter purse and a hangover.
Today, supporters of Proposition 71 are making exactly the same claim: that for the low, low price of just $3 billion, they can cure everything from diabetes to cancer.
Prop. 71 requires California taxpayers to borrow $3 billion for stem cell research – an amount almost twice what has been spent on all of the University of California’s research facilities over the last 25 years. These billions will then be doled out to “deserving” applicants as determined by a commission of political appointees and advocacy groups (ironically called the “Independent” Citizen’s Oversight Committee).
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalusa.com ...
All this clandestine activity? Looks like the master deceiver at work.
To say "it's a bad idea" it's an understatement!
What nonsense to try to put it into the CA Constitution!
Stem cell research is NOT banned. And there is no reason to fund it by either federal or state funds.
Even putting the ethical questions aside ( I don't like to get into dragged out arguments about that), since it's already legal, there is no reason for a Constitutional Amendment and if it's as valuable as some think, then private industry will put in the investment necessary.
I am tired of people expecting that the government should fund everything.
How did it become the responsibility of the most debt-ridden state in the country to fund medical research for the rest of the world? California taxpayers are legally required to repay every penny of this money – which averages, with principal and interest, to well over $600 for every family in the state. That’s on top of the burdens they already must shoulder as California digs its way out from under a staggering mountain of bills.
California has the lowest credit rating in the country, with debt growing at an unprecedented pace. On May 1, the state’s general fund owed $33 billion. By June 30th, it is expected to owe nearly $51 billion – a 54 percent increase in just 14 months. Prop. 71 will add $3 billion of principal and an additional $3 billion of interest to the state's – and therefore to taxpayers’ - financial woes.
Its supporters assure us that our money will produce staggering breakthroughs in medical science. But if this were likely, private capital would be rushing in to finance it. And in this era of brazenly fraudulent state grants, who will be looking over the shoulders of these political appointees as they hand out $3 billion of our money?
Not the public. The commission’s deliberations are exempt from California ’s Open Meetings Act whenever it discusses “matters involving confidential intellectual property” or “confidential scientific research or data.” Considering that its entire purpose is to make grants based upon research requests, everything on the agenda after the Pledge of Allegiance will be behind closed doors.
Not the press. The commission’s deliberations are also exempt from the California Public Records Act, under the same terms. Want to find out what your $3 billion has bought? Sorry, that’s confidential.
Not the law. The working groups that will score and recommend projects for funding are completely exempt from the state’s conflict of interest laws. Pharmaceutical lobbyists, for example, are free to serve on working groups that are recommending millions of dollars of gifts to their companies. Great work if you can find it.
Not surprisingly, the folks who stand to gain $3 billion from this measure have already contributed over $13 million to its passage (a 23,000 percent return on investment), proving once again that there are still attractive investment opportunities in today’s economy.
nonsense ? No, the master deceiver at work
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