-By Warner Todd Huston
Illinois’ 14th District Congressman, Randy Hultgren, is a co-sponsor of a bill to create a national Science Laureate. This position will be little else but a chance for Obama to push someone into the national debate that supports all his favorite, left-wing pseudo scientific ideas like global warming, abortion, so-called green energy, and anti-fracking policy ideas. Hultgren needs to be urged to remove his support for this bill.
Now, at first blush, a Science Laureate almost seems like a harmless idea, one created to encourage kids, for instance, to feel that science is cool. And in fact, that is Hultgren’s point by co-sponsoring the bill.
Here is what a staffer from his office has said of the bill: “This is not a presidential appointment, and there would be no taxpayer money involved. This bill is simply a chance to show our children that discovery science is important and that science can be an exciting and rewarding career.”
Seems inoffensive, right?
Think again.
This position, whether it is funded by tax dollars or not, is an appointment by the president despite what Hultgren’s office claims. And where THIS President has appointments, he uses them to push his extremist, left-wing ideology.
The bill was introduced by Senators Mazie Hirno (D, HI) and Roger Wicker (R, MS) early in September, but as to how this Laureate position gets filled, the summary of the bill says, “The President shall appoint a Science Laureate on the basis of…”
Gee, Mr. Hultgren, that sure sounds like the president will appoint someone to me!
And if Barack Obama appoints a so-called Science Laureate you absolutely know what will happen.
We’ll get a “science” guy that will push global warming, will say that a fetus is just a lump of unviable cells, that we need to dump oil for unproven and nearly non-existent “green” energy, or that fracking–the one economic sector that is booming–needs to be shut down.
We need to tell Randy Hultgren that we don’t need an Obama-politicized national science scold. We already have his wife scolding us about being too fat or not drinking enough water–and spending millions of tax dollars doing it. We already have his entire administration pushing failed, expensive, crony-capitalist green energy spending. We already have his whole party trying to devalue life in the womb. We don’t need an “honorary” position doing the same thing.
Hultgren is shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you, by the suggesting that this Science Laureate could become just another way for Obama to push his partisan ideas. But you know damn well that is what will happen.
After all, that is what Obama has done with everything he’s done in office. This has been the singularly most partisan President in American history. Everything he does is meant to push the left-wing, progressive cause. This will be no different.
Besides, as a nation we need to start reversing this from-the-top-style of government. We don’t need our national daddy in Washington telling us what is good for us. We already know science is good. It will not serve us any to have Obama telling us science is good. I am sick to death of our so-called leaders telling us to drink water, not to have big sodas or eat transfats.
Tell Randy Hultgren to pull his support for this bill. Here is Hultgren’s contact page on his Congressional website. Go use it, please.
Tell Hultgren NO on creating a so-called National Science Laureate.
**UPDATE** 9/18/13
Congressman Hultgren’s office has been kind enough to send a statement for all to see on this issue.
This bill to establish a National Science Laureate helps preserves the union George Washington established and Abraham Lincoln preserved.
In his first annual message to Congress in 1790, George Washington said: “There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is, in every county, the surest basis of public happiness.” That’s pretty strong language. Washington felt it was the duty of Congress to promote science. Later, Abraham Lincoln signed into law the National Academy of Sciences, which will recommend the unpaid laureates to the President.
By creating this Science Laureate program, we’re building on the actions of Abraham Lincoln to carry out the will of George Washington and our founders–what can be more conservative than that?
There’s danger in any authority Congress gives the President to use it for political means, and using this important program to push a political agenda (climate science or otherwise) is unacceptable. In fact, Rep. Hultgren has consistently held the administration’s feet to the fire for politicizing climate science. Here he grills a NOAA official over just that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsbGeZ8Yfvc&list=PL56E7C53B7BECD4BC. The President’s campaign team (Organizing for Action) has attacked Rep. Hultgren for his clear stance against such politicization, calling him a “climate change denier”: http://ofa.barackobama.com/climate-deniers/#/state/il.
But this is not a political appointment in the traditional sense of the word. Far from allowing anything like a “global-warming czar,” the bill expresses the expectation that the President would rely on the Academy’s recommendations which would cover a wide array of areas so kids could get excited about all types of science. This bill will be going through the committee process and Rep. Hultgren is very open to improvements, such as ensuring there be a variety of subject areas represented and preventing the President from abusing the Academy’s recommendations to please his radical constituency. Rep. Hultgren would be happy for other suggestions or improvements as it moves through committee. An additional safeguard would be to get a Republican president and a Republican administration back in the White House!
Rep. Hultgren is focused on creating jobs in the 14th District, and he sees scientific innovation as a key to getting folks back to work. He co-founded the Science and National Labs Caucus, seeing great opportunity for job creation through facilities like Fermilab and the innovations that come from basic scientific research. In order for the United States to remain competitive, it needs to keep innovating in fields that rely on science like medicine and manufacturing—areas with huge opportunities for job growth. But we need future innovative scientists to get inspired by seeing what’s out there before they can get excited about the field.
As Rep. Hultgren said on the House floor: “Our children must see that science is something our nation values, or they will not make the sacrifices necessary for our next great discoveries. Our nation will not be leading the way through our next frontier if we do not inspire the next generation of great scientists.”
Congressman Hultgren would also like to bring this video of his comments on climate change to your attention:
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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