As of January 8 , Senator Ted Cruz ( R - TX ) is now the chairman of the SenateSubcommittee on Space , Science and Competitivenessfor the114th Congress . This will give up Cruz to regularize funding for NASA and other science broadcast . This intelligence is particularly distressing give the Senator ’s appalling track record book when it comes to NASA and scientific discipline .
Cruz addressed the Subcommittee on Science and Space in April 2013 , and made the case for financing in space venture . “ It ’s critical that the United States ensure its continued leadership in space,”he said . Yet , the opinion did not come out to be sincere . Just a few months later in July , Cruzvoted to reduce NASA ’s funding . And that was n’t even the worst of things to come from the Senator .
In September 2013 , Cruz get control of the Senate floor and spoke for 21 hour about wanting to defund theAffordable Care Act . Not only was heunsuccessful in changing healthcareeven a little bit , but he caused a 16 - day - long shutdown of the Union government that would deal adevastating bungle to American scientific enquiry . Scientists funded by the government were coerce to blockade their study , including an astonishing 97 % of NASA ’s employees . Data collection was compromise for inquiry spanning the far compass of outer space , to tracking disease , to monitoring food safety .
Because Senator Cruz plain does not know how scientific inquiry is conducted , it arrive as no surprise that he also oppose climate change , which is nigh universally accept by climatologists . In a2014 interview with CNN , Cruz detail his thought process on the matter . regrettably , it was riddled with talk points that are easily disproven or clear up , admit this gem when require about melting glaciers in the Arctic :
" Other role are going up . It is not — you know , you always have to be worried about something that is considered a so - call scientific theory that fit every scenario . Climate change , as they have define it , can never be disproved , because whether it gets hotter or whether it contract cold , whatever happens , they ’ll say , well , it ’s deepen , so it proves our theory . ”
Cruz has also shown to be out of his league when it comes to issues regarding technology . In November of 2014 , he came out in opposition of last disinterest , though it became incredibly apparent that he did n’t actually screw what net neutrality was . He equalize it to Obamacare and said that in club to keep the internet innocent and open , the government involve to stay out of it . ( In fact , the government ’s role would have been to sort the cyberspace as a utility , allowing all data to be treat equally . ) This garnered Cruzconsiderable criticism , even amongst Republicans who voted for him .
So what will 2015 bring for Ted Cruz ’s approach to space geographic expedition and science in his new situation ? The best we can desire for is a resignation .
