Senator Tom Coburn wants the National Science Foundation to stop wasting the federal research dollars it receives from the government on political science studies. Not surprisingly, many political scientists are vehemently opposed to this cut off in funding, pointing to current Nobel Prize winner, Elinor Ostrom as a case in point. Ostrom frequently received federal funds through the National Science Foundation.
However, others in the field agree that a lot of studies being done and federally funded have little public benefit and are, just plain junk food political science. Easy to take in, but of little import.
Senator Coburn believes money given to the National Science Foundation should not be used for things like "What impact does YouTube have on elections, but rather be used for cancer research and other hard science, the very things for which the NSF was created.
We are living in an age when there are way too many studies, most just plain silly, paid for through federal grant monies or commercial/special interests looking for a way to sell their product or point of view. Too many end up with conclusions that most of us would consider "obvious". Take this one for example.
What would we do without studies?
