By Wesley J. Smith

Editor's note. This first appeared yesterday on Mr. Smith's fine blog-- http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/

California is Greece without the Acropolis. And yet, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine–perhaps its profligate administers fearing that the people of California will pull the plug when its ten year borrow and spend license expires–is spending desperately on research in the hope that it will have something to show for its borrowed $6 billion (including interest). From the story [http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Institute-doubles-down-on-stem-cell-funding-101229699.html#ixzz0xkRwktiM]

The state-funded stem cell institute decided to double the rate at which it spends taxpayer dollars as part of a strategy to produce definitive research results that can persuade voters to give it more cash. When staff members from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine approached the Board of Directors last week with a proposal to spend $120 million on grants for six researchers, the directors poo-pooed the idea. They said it would be a much better idea to double the funding to $240 million for 12 researchers, one of whom, they hope, will find a miracle cure for a debilitating disease. The move was part of a tactic by agency leaders to foster voter enthusiasm to hand the agency billions of dollars more.

The story quotes Robert Klein as suggesting that we should borrow another $4 billion–that the CIRM will then spend on huge salaries, PR staffs, expensive buildings, and grants to for profit private corporations and universities with huge endowments.

Klein needs to get a clue. California is impecunious. We are broke. Our services are being slashed past the bone. Yet, for the spendthrift CIRM, it is borrow, borrow, borrow and spend, spend, spend. The time has long since come to shut this white elephant down. ...