3/9 Undoing Bush: Respecting, not Ignoring, Scientific Facts

2009: President Obama today vowed that his administration will “base our public policies on the soundest science . . . and that we are open and honest with the American people about the science behind our decisions.”  The Boston Globe quoted Dr. George Q. Daley, a stem cell biologist at Children’s Hospital in Boston as saying:   “To have the president stand up and assert that science should be free of ideology and politics . . . how can you not applaud that?”

The situation was very different in the Bush White House, where disagreeable or unpleasant scientific facts were often set aside or ignored for political reasons. Obama ordered the Office of Science and Technology Policy to formulate plans for “restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making.”

For some examples of Bush disrespecting the work of science click here.