Representative Adrian Smith (R-NE) unleashed a BRILLIANT plan for distributing grants through the NSF. Instead of having scientists review the grant proposals, it would be up to the voters.
I really shouldn't have to elaborate. Giving the electorate the power to choose how grants are distributed is a bad idea. How could the masses possibly know what was good and bad? Who knows what would get funded and what wouldn't (maybe even studies that would be considered pseudoscience because they fit a specific agenda).
This is why the federal government shouldn't control science funding. That should be a private venture, done with private investment and private donations and not through taxes. I mean, that wouldn't necessarily prohibit pseudoscience from being funded, but at least the whole thing could work like a market. The government typically only funds things that have utility, rather than things that are simply interesting or serve to better understand the world around us. Overall, government control of science funding will serve to kill exploratory science.
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