When you start seeing terms like "postdoc" on the Washington Post opinion pages, perhaps the concerns of early-career scientists are beginning to get traction among policy makers. In today's Washington Post, economist Gene Sperling takes President Bush to task for a threatened veto of a proposed increase the National Institutes of Health budget in an op-ed titled "How to Get Fewer Scientists".
Sperling, chief economic adviser to the President during Bill Clinton's second term and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, shows how underfunding science agencies like NIH discourages younger scientists and students (thus the reference to postdocs). He also describes how spending money on science often encourages entrepreneurial activity and job creation.
Who knows ... maybe they'll talk about it on Meet The Press!
