Bush Says Rumsfeld Resigning, Gates to Replace Him

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

Why is Bush bashed for stem cell research when he is the only POTUS to give federal funds to it? There is nothing to excuse- he GAVE fed funding to the research- Clinton did not. WHY are people angry when he did what Clinton would not? That is the curiousity.

First, let's start with the full story.

In response to the panel's recommendations, the Clinton administration, citing moral and ethical concerns, declined to fund research on embryos created solely for research purposes,[28] but did agree to fund research on left-over embryos created by in vitro fertility treatments. At this point, the Congress intervened and passed the Dickey Amendment in 1995 (the final bill, which included the Dickey Amendment, was signed into law by Clinton) which prohibited all federal funding for research that resulted in the destruction of an embryo regardless of the source of that embryo. The Dickey Amendment remains the law to this day.

source

So his initial act was to allow certain stem cell research. The Dickey Amendment was (and continues to be) attached to a larger appropriations bill, passed by congress, whose main focus was dealing with balancing the budget. The bill did too much good to veto over one tacked-on ammendment.

And on top of all that, tell me this. In 1995, if someone had asked you what you thought of stem cell research, would you have been able to give an answer. I certainly wouldn't have known wtf it was. So no, there was no public outrage because it wasn't in the public eye yet.