The members of the transition team preparing the change of presidency in the USA are going through all the restrictions that Bush imposed on the federal agencies in the USA and probably 200 of the orders that Bush signed will be canceled
Barack Obama seeks to reverse over 200 decisions of President Bush, including the decision to allow oil drilling in Utah (in environmentally sensitive areas), and the series of Bush decisions prohibiting federal funding for research in the field of stem cells, as well as laws restricting the freedom of abortion in the USA. This is evident from what the head of the transition team, John Podesta, said in an interview with the Fox network. Podesta served as White House Chief of Staff under President Clinton.
Other issues that will probably receive special treatment are Bush's prohibitions on reproductive rights, and his opposition to the US joining the Kyoto Protocol, which limits carbon emissions.
He added that the transition team is checking with all federal government agencies which Bush orders are relevant to them and will examine them one by one, and will consider whether to continue with the same policy or cancel the orders. As I recall, Bush imposed a ban on the use of embryonic stem cells, because according to his conservative view, even a few-day-old fetus that includes individual cells is already a living being and harming it means destroying life. "Now we are in a period of transition, but it is clear that we will change the way the government operates, as we move forward" he concluded.
As you remember in the series we prepared on the science website before the elections, we exposed the positions of the two candidates on the sensitive scientific issues, including Energy and the environment וthe stem cells. In the field of stem cells, we revealed that Obama wants to promote research in the field in order to exhaust as much as possible the ways to find new drugs for serious diseases.
"I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on human stem cell research funding have tied the hands of our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations. As president, I will lift the current administration's ban on federal funding for research into embryonic stem cell lines produced after August 9, 2001 (the day Bush first signed the order) through an executive order, and I will ensure that all stem cell research is conducted ethically and under strict supervision."
"I was among the proponents of the proposal to freeze federal funding for stem cell research and I am frustrated by the members of the Senate who opposed it, and regret that we are preventing the progress of vital science that could potentially affect millions of Americans suffering from serious illnesses." He wrote in April this year on his official website. "Stem cell research holds tremendous promise for the treatment of incurable and life-threatening diseases. However, in order to reach an advanced level of medicine, many studies must be carried out in order to understand and ultimately utilize the potential of the stem cells. Instead of creating barriers, we must all work together to expand the funding of stem cell research and continue to advance in our war on disease, and this can be achieved by advancing our knowledge through science and medicine."
On the same topic on the science website:
- Obama promised in his victory speech to improve the education system
- Obama lost to an Israeli astrologer
- Obama and McCain on planetariums and other nonsense
- Obama and McCain on the teaching of evolution
- Obama and McCain on global warming
- Obama and McCain on stem cells
- Obama and McCain on the space program
- Yadan 2008 US elections
