Whitehouse proposes spending 100 million on Brain Disorders

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Although I love learning about the brain, concordant with a previous poster, I worry about the social implications of how the government would use the information.
Also, I really think we should be working on reducing the massive deficit so that we can all continue to have affordable food on our tables and roof over our heads. The current economy is in terrible shape and I'm a stickler for living within a budget and believe the government should set the example and do the same. I do believe fending off the impulse to add more expensive programs is prudent until we are more fiscally flush as a nation.

100 million is nothing the interest on the us debt is over 150 million an hour

The EU is doing a similar project called the HBP~~~Human Brain Project.

The head of the NIH was interviewed on the Colbert Report last night about the BRAIN initiative. There isn't really anything autism-related in the interview a brief mention aside, just a general overview about what they're trying to map and stuff. Still maybe worth watching if you want to know some more about what they're doing.

You can watch it here.

I suppose I am rather concerned how the government might use whatever knowledge they gain....also perhaps maybe they should fund some studies as to what social/environmental factors are contributing but then changes to the system rather than peoples brains might have to be made.

This is completely worth funding IMO. Aside from autism, there is the potential to aid research into actual brain diseases. It's kinda like the Human Genome Project, which has done so much for scientific research (and that's just in 10 years). I get what people are saying regarding ASD, but for brain research overall it seems like a good investment.