Why buy the Scientists, when you can just buy the Government?

The G.O.P.’s War on Science Gets Worse - The New Yorker.

Look at those faces. McConnell appears to be on the verge of tears, while Boehner shoots him a warning glance. Just get through this and we'll be free men. I don't really believe they're being coerced, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I'm not an American, but this upsets me a lot. My nation's government has been disassembling its contributions to science for years, and I know that the oil industry has as firm a grip south of the border as it does up here, but I always assumed that their status as a world technological leader would keep them from stooping this low. They can't get the scientists to shut up about carbon emissions, climate change, and alternative energy, so they just pull the rug out from under them!

I know I'm straying into conspiracy territory here, but it's hard to deny that the juggernauts of the fossil fuel industry wield a lot of influence in national governments, which allows them to guide changes to the way the governments treat corporations, in particular within their own industries. But I'd like to point this out as one more reason to suggest that the scientific community is not so easily swayed. Activists and lobbyist clearly have the power to make governments do their bidding anyway. Why bother to buy off the scientists, when you can bury their voices?