The Scientific-Technological Elite, Foreign Funding, and Joe Miller’s Immigration Gaffe

Scientific-Technological Elite

In his farewell address, Eisenhower warned that partnerships between government agencies and university researchers could lead to public policy becoming “the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

Adjunct Scholar Fran Smith says that the growth of corporate-university-government “clean energy” organizations may fulfill Eisenhower’s prophesy.

“The stringent emissions reductions policy in Europe has caused domestic emissions to be replaced by emissions from foreign imports. If your goal is a global emissions reductions, then by this measure their policy has failed — while raising the price of energy and encouraging manufacturers to relocate abroad.”

Foreign Funding

After Obama claimed that the Chamber of Commerce was funding political campaigns with foreign money, the press was quick (and correct) to point out that many left-wing organizations enjoy the benefits of foreign funding.

Senior Counsel Hans Bader explains why Obama’s criticism of the Chamber was a political mistake.

“Not only was this claim this untrue, but stoking nativism may backfire on Obama politically, since liberal interest groups that back Obama, like unions, receive large amounts of foreign money, and Obama himself has used regulations and subsidies to ship American jobs overseas.”

Joe Miller’s Immigration Gaffe

GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller told a town hall audience, “The first thing that has to be done is secure the border. . . East Germany was very, very able to reduce the flow. Now, obviously, other things were involved. We have the capacity to, as a great nation, secure the border. If East Germany could, we could.”

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young slams Miller for using East Germany as an example of  successful border security.

“Miller forgets that East Germany’s 858 miles of fence weren’t meant to keep people out. That fence was meant to keep people in. Against their will. On pain of death. […] If Miller wins his election, there is a lot he can do to reduce illegal immigration. Building an American version of the Berlin Wall is not one of them. As Alex Nowrasteh and I wrote, ‘The immigration black market only exists is because the government has made the legal market as cumbersome as it can.’ Miller should make legal immigration less cumbersome. “