Politics cannot determine optimal research portfolios, especially in an age of sequesters and perpetual deficits.

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What effect do all the successive fiscal cliffs, ceilings and sequesters, have on public confidence?

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You addressed the issue of sequesters earlier, but I wanted to put it in a different context.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

But scientists aren't sure no-till really sequesters carbon any better than conventional farming.

NPR: Can Dirt Really Save Us From Global Warming?

Lurking underneath all the impressive-sounding talking points about 10-year projections, super committees, and automatic sequesters are two deflating facts.

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What make algae particularly useful as a feedstock is that they thrive off carbon dioxide (C02), which makes them great carbon sequesters.

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He also called on Congress to delay the sequesters, which he warned would help create a "significant headwind" for the US recovery.

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There have been sequesters.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

Far better would be statutory limits on spending increases and debt as a share of GDP, sequesters that automatically cut spending if Congress exceeds those limits, supermajority rules for replacing those limits, and revisions of the budget baseline so that each year's budget begins at last year's spending levels, not with automatic increases.

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