Douglas Alexander: “We met with President Hu for about an hour, those of us from the Senate. We talked about a variety of issues with him…”

“We met with President Hu for about an hour, those of us from the Senate. We talked about a variety of issues with him: North Korea, Iran, Iraq. He was more animated about this subject than any other subject, which is why I suppose we had 70 Senators--35 Democrats, 35 Republicans--who cosponsored the Domenici-Bingaman bill that was the Augustine report. We all understand it is very important. We have seen what is happening in India. India is another great country with a distinguished group of scientists, and they now recognize if they want a bigger share of the world's economic pie, the way to do that is through science and innovation. The challenge America faces today is really a challenge about brain power and jobs. I appreciate the way the Augustine report especially put this into perspective. It didn't say the United States of America is about to fall off a cliff or that China and India are going to catch us tomorrow. It said we face a gathering storm. We need to realize how fortunate we are in the United States of America when it comes to our standard of living. We constitute between 4 percent and 5 percent of the world's population. Last year we had 28 percent of the world's wealth. The International Monetary Fund says the gross domestic product of the United States last year was 28 percent of the global total for just 4 to 5 percent of the people.…”