Oh, the delicious irony.
We Wisconsinsites who aren't on the right-wing fringe are rather proud that stem cells were pretty much discovered here at the University of Wisconsin by a smart fellow named Jamie Thomson. We were also quite pleased when a few months ago he chose to stay in town and start a company called Cellular Dynamics. They're already screening drugs for heart disease.
Yesterday, Governor James Doyle (a Democrat) announced $2 million in state funding for Cellular Dynamics. The money will create 33 jobs.
And later this week, the Republican-controlled Senate will likely ban human cloning for any purpose.
Quotes and my analysis after the flip. (I even manage to take on gay marriage!)
Support for technology businesses such as Cellular Dynamics is part of Doyle's Grow Wisconsin economic development plan, and he outlined the next phase of it at the morning news conference in Madison.
Doyle credited initiatives adopted since he took office in 2003, such as tax incentives and streamlined rules, for creating 140,000 jobs in Wisconsin. He also pointed to the rise in the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $5.70 an hour.
{snip}
His monetary award to Cellular Dynamics - which will help the company add 33 employees - is the largest the state has given to any technology startup company, Department of Commerce spokesman Tony Hozeny said. More than just a financial boost, it is a message to the Legislature, with the Senate scheduled to discuss a bill today, passed by the Assembly last spring, that would ban human cloning.
"If it comes to my desk, it will be vetoed," Doyle said, calling the bill an "extreme measure."
The moral status of human embryos and fears of doctors harvesting organs from clones will be pitted against economic development and the potential for stem cell-based cures for fatal diseases this week as the state Senate takes up a bill to ban human cloning.
Thursday's debate on the measure, approved in June by the state Assembly, will likely focus on one question: Should the state prohibit cloning embryos for research along with cloning to make babies?
{snip}
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R- Juneau, a co-sponsor of the bill, said cloning for research isn't necessary because "adult" stem cells can be found in umbilical cord blood, regular blood and other tissues.
"No one has ever been cured from a disease from embryonic stem-cell research," he said. "There has not been enough exploration in these other areas."
Well no kidding, Scooter. No one has ever been cured with embryonic stem cells because you keep mucking with their research!
Here's where I sit as a business journalist and a pro-business liberal. The Republicans say they are in favor of business - small business in particular - because economic development is the best way to end poverty. And they're right. The rising tide floats all boats, as they say, so supporting businesses that create good jobs is the best way to alleviate poverty and therefore lessen crime and so on and so on.
But then they turn around and ban the very research that will create those jobs.
It's the same thing with the gay marriage ban. They're poised to pass that constitutional amendment this spring and send it to referendum. But what they don't seem to understand is that that will have a serious nagative impact on the state's economy. (I won't get into the details of that argument here; for well-reasoned and insightful analysis of that issue, read this longish story and/or this short column.
It boils down to this: whoever says the GOP is the party of small business is a fool, a liar, or both.