5 ms·

The %55 budget cut is proposed, it fortunately hasn't happened yet and it might not survive congress.

huxley 9mo ago
You’re not wrong that it hasn’t been passed by congress but just the proposal has already led to a massive decrease in grants. I am not as optimistic that Congress would go against admin policy
ModernMech 9mo ago
They can cut budgets without Congress by reappropriating money now, it's one of the powers they've managed to usurp. But they don't have to cut anything, they manage to curb spending by throwing a wrench in the whole machine and watching awards crawl to a halt. They cancel grants, fire or drive out reviewers to increase review times, or delay follow-up funding. Maybe the funding comes through eventually but students need to be funded continually; the government will pull their visas if they don't have funding to enroll. They're also straight up harassing and arresting foreign students for no reason, so they don't even have to muck with the budget at all to materially ruin things.
cyanydeez 9mo ago
Half of the admins goals are met simply by creating uncertainty.
yndoendo 9mo ago
Damage has been done. I working on de-investing in the USA companies and investing in the EU. USA executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch are a complacent in stupidity. There is no stability in the USA and no longer rule of law.
- water9 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - theshrike79 9mo ago
    EU is more stable. A sigle person can't declare themselves dictator and unilaterally start applying rules affecting the whole of EU. And the "extreme" tax thing is just pure propaganda. USA pays just as much, but it's not called a "tax", it's just insurance copays (whatever that is), credit card fees, childcare fees, tuitions etc.
    - disgruntledphd2 8mo ago
      As I often point out here, my marginal rate where I live (Ireland) and what I'd have paid in California were almost identical. Now California is a high-tax state, but given that there's no health insurance included that seems pretty similar to me.
      - compsciphd 8mo ago
        were you not employed by an employer that was paying your insurance premiums? Heck, when I was in california the startup I was at was paying almost my entire insurance premium. and in practice, I'd argue I had better quality of care from that than from my socialized insurance in my current country, though the socialized care does have some benefits. reason for better quality of care is that in the US system for all its problems, the patient is the customer as they have many options and each doctor is running an independent business. my experience with socialized medicine is that the government is really the customer, not me, and doctors are not really running independent businesses (and when they do, they aren't particularly cheap). It's like having a single HMO that gets to decide what you get with little recourse. While some might equate it to health insurance companies in the US, I, at least, felt I had much more flexibility with them.
        SetTheorist 8mo ago
        https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health-expenditure https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health... The data does not support the claim that the US has "better quality of care"

You’re not wrong that it hasn’t been passed by congress but just the proposal has already led to a massive decrease in grants. I am not as optimistic that Congress would go against admin policy

ModernMech 9mo ago

They can cut budgets without Congress by reappropriating money now, it's one of the powers they've managed to usurp. But they don't have to cut anything, they manage to curb spending by throwing a wrench in the whole machine and watching awards crawl to a halt. They cancel grants, fire or drive out reviewers to increase review times, or delay follow-up funding. Maybe the funding comes through eventually but students need to be funded continually; the government will pull their visas if they don't have funding to enroll. They're also straight up harassing and arresting foreign students for no reason, so they don't even have to muck with the budget at all to materially ruin things.

cyanydeez 9mo ago

Half of the admins goals are met simply by creating uncertainty.

yndoendo 9mo ago

Damage has been done. I working on de-investing in the USA companies and investing in the EU. USA executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch are a complacent in stupidity. There is no stability in the USA and no longer rule of law.

water9 9mo ago
[flagged]
- theshrike79 9mo ago
  EU is more stable. A sigle person can't declare themselves dictator and unilaterally start applying rules affecting the whole of EU. And the "extreme" tax thing is just pure propaganda. USA pays just as much, but it's not called a "tax", it's just insurance copays (whatever that is), credit card fees, childcare fees, tuitions etc.
  - disgruntledphd2 8mo ago
    As I often point out here, my marginal rate where I live (Ireland) and what I'd have paid in California were almost identical. Now California is a high-tax state, but given that there's no health insurance included that seems pretty similar to me.
    - compsciphd 8mo ago
      were you not employed by an employer that was paying your insurance premiums? Heck, when I was in california the startup I was at was paying almost my entire insurance premium. and in practice, I'd argue I had better quality of care from that than from my socialized insurance in my current country, though the socialized care does have some benefits. reason for better quality of care is that in the US system for all its problems, the patient is the customer as they have many options and each doctor is running an independent business. my experience with socialized medicine is that the government is really the customer, not me, and doctors are not really running independent businesses (and when they do, they aren't particularly cheap). It's like having a single HMO that gets to decide what you get with little recourse. While some might equate it to health insurance companies in the US, I, at least, felt I had much more flexibility with them.
      - SetTheorist 8mo ago
        https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health-expenditure https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health... The data does not support the claim that the US has "better quality of care"