Thanks very much for your continued upkeep of the blog.
I'm not one to post there myself but I thought our OpEd "Privatizing National Lab Management Misguided" might be of interest.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Privatizing-national-lab-management-misguided-4843513.php
The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will have a huge negative effect on the lab. Crazy, juts crazy. He also wants to cut NEA and PBS, this may not seem like a big deal but they get very little money and do great things.
Comments
But then failed to support it with any of the relevant points/analysis.
The fee is a small issue, compared with everything else that has happened...
http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/energy-department-ig-pushes-cost-savng-moves-national-labs/
The LLNS annual fee to run LLNL, plus its "for profit" tax status is a ~10% budget burden. A non-profit (UC, other) institution running the lab would produce a savings comparable to a lab wide furlough event that nobody wants to see occur.
September 29, 2013 at 11:44 AM
It's all about making money for the big corporations just like Obamacare. The people aren't going to benefit, well at least not the working ones, but big business medicine, supplies and hospitals are all while the working cannot afford the monthly premium and then get taxed at the end of the year for not having medical insurance.