Federal Funding, Well Done, Pays Off.

I quote from Science magazine:

With the U.S. budget under intense pressure, lawmakers increasingly are looking to save money by cutting federal spending on research and development. But at two Capitol Hill briefings, experts offered compelling evidence that that federal investment can yield enormous dividends and warned that cuts to R&D could hinder future economic growth. 

At the briefings, co-organized by AAAS, they pointed to the Google search engine, iPod technology, and the Human Genome Project as examples of how federal funding has aided transformational innovation and economic growth. Especially when economic stresses are acute, they said, the nation must maintain its longstanding commitment to invest in future prosperity. 

“We have very powerful evidence of the productivity” of R&D spending, said University of California-Davis sociologist Fred Block. “When we’re cutting back on that R&D spending, we are eating our seed corn, and upsetting the possibilities of future economic growth and development.”

Right on!