It's hard to understate what a drain this is on scientific productivity beyond the direct impact of the budget cuts. It's also just a tremendous distraction - t

It's hard to understate what a drain this is on scientific productivity beyond the direct impact of the budget cuts. It's also just a tremendous distraction - trying to figure out what the various vaguely worded statements mean, wondering if your program is next even if you've escaped for the moment, worrying about how to keep your people employed - especially since the number of other places that could take them are shrinking. There's an incredible amount of cognitive burden just on doing science right now, and it's very difficult to feel like writing new proposals, working on long term projects, etc. is worthwhile.