The San Francisco Chronicle finally read the fine print on Proposition 71, the stem cell research initiative, which voters approved last month. It discovers that the voters have bought into a commitment to spend billions of dollars of borrrowed money with little or no supervision or accountability, and that as much or more money will go to investment bankers and bondholders than will go to actual research. The state legislature cannot modify the act without a 70% super majority.

I deeply opposed the propsition on multiple grounds, not least of which is the availability of more promising approaches than fetal stem cells, the impropriety of California borrowing money for stem cell research in the face of a budget crisis (a gift to the world's science community), and the amount of money it would cost after bond interest was paid ($6 billion dollars). I was dismayed when Governor Schwarzenegger endorsed it, virtually assuring voter passage.

There is almost no protection from or accountablity for profligate spending on first class travel, luxury offices, staff salaries, and on and on. California voters bought a pig in a poke.

Thomas Lifson  12 8 04