When The Words “Just” And “Before” Foreshadow Bad Things For Medical Research

This is a guest post by Jamie L. Vernon, Ph.D., a research scientist and policy wonk, who encourages the scientific community to get engaged in the policy-making process On Wednesday, President Obama gave a fiery press conference performance during which he ridiculed Republicans for their handling of the deficit reductions talks. As I listened to the President, I was reminded of previous legislative negotiations, such as the Health Care debate, where he similarly made it known that Congress was failing to meet their obligations to the American people. On each of those previous occasions, the President came out victorious, by achieving the legislation for which he was advocating. The language used by the President this week suggests that he’s willing to fight to prevent a default on America’s debt. However, there were some comments that left me wondering if the U.S. scientific research community should brace for deeper cuts in the process. At one point in the conference, President Obama explained that reaching the spending cut goals would be difficult and they would need to be distributed throughout the government. He said,