THIS IS WHY REPUBLICANS SHOULDN'T BE IN CHARGE OF SCIENCE PROJECTS

Have you ever wondered what makes market auctions function more efficiently?

Apart from the military funding, have you ever wondered what really spurred the development of the internet for public use?

Did you know that research on maternal rat habits helped develop the science behind saving and making premature babies healthier?

This clip explains how federal funded research helped bring about all of these developments, and more.

Now meet the Republican member of Congress, Rep. Lamar Smith, whose staffers are scouring federal agencies looking for what he thinks are "silly" titles and useless research projects.

Smith's goal is to cut and sabotage federal funding for research projects he doesn't like, which one could presume would have included research into maternal rat habits.

In the FYI department, one of Smith's subcommittee chairs, Rep. Paul Broun, doesn't believe in evolution ("lies straight from the pit of Hell"), while Rep. Smith not only denies climate change, but used the committee he chairs to order the Pentagon to effectively ignore climate science research.

And, yes, Smith is from Texas.

- Mark