Trump's war on the environment

[David Horn]

(05-08-2017, 03:41 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(05-08-2017, 01:13 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: CNN is reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency is firing scientists.  They mention that these are technical positions rather than political positions, thus it is not traditional to fire and replace them on a presidential change of power.

Actually, these aren't employees at all; they're consultants.

And why is that?  On yeah, Reagan began the downward trend of federal employee headcount, but that only made it necessary to hire consultants and contractors.  These folks should be employees, but they are so much less protected from the vagaries of politics when they aren't.  Is there some point that we finally admit that the plan to shrink the government is merely an attempt to neuter it?  Can we continue to supplant scientific inquiry with political opinion and still thrive as a nation?

Note the attack on tenure has similar origins.  The powerful don't want to be contradicted, and are wiling to pay to make it so.