Rebuttal to Bush on stem-cell funding

Bush's B.S. on Stem Cells: Debate Preemption Edition

If and when the issue of embryonic stem cell research comes up in Wednesday night's debate, we'll probably hear president Bush claim to have been the first president to fund this research. This is of course because Washington and Lincoln hated science, as we all learned in grade school.

Seriously: No one should fall for the Bush's woefully misleading talking point on this subject. (That means you, John Kerry.) Instead, check out this extensive history of the stem cell issue from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)--and therein uncover a great rebuttal to Bush.

As AAAS makes clear, the Clinton administration was all set to fund embryonic stem cell research without Bush's arbitrary restrictions. But a 2000 campaign statement by Bush, to the effect that he opposed such funding, "discouraged many scientists from submitting proposals," according to AAAS. Then Bush became president, and the rest we know.

So when Bush claims to be the first president to provide government monies to support this work, he's not telling us that:

1. He reversed a much more generous Clinton era funding policy that was already in place;

2. His own campaign statement created a situation of uncertainty among scientists that likely prevented the Clinton administration from undewriting any of this research even though it wanted to;

3. Given all of this, he has a lot of nerve claiming to be the first president to fund embryonic stem cell research.

The president's claims on this head are, at best, incompletely true, and at worst, seriously misleading. Don't let him get away with it, Kerry. Instead, point out--as John Edwards would put it--that Bush "still isn't being straight with the American people."

Posted by Chris Mooney at 8:49 AM Eastern