Political Quotes

“this amendment is similar to the previous amendment in that it focuses on innovation. It focuses on what this country does best, which is create new products and advance the knowledge with scientific discoveries and new inventions. This amendment, however, deals specifically with scientific discovery and technological breakthroughs that drive our economy. We have known throughout human history that the drivers of that have been the big breakthroughs, whether it is the cotton gin or the internal combustion engine or the railroads. These have been inventions that have transformed the entire planet. We need to continue to have those innovations, but in order to do that, we need to invest in basic scientific research. Investments in basic research have resulted in countless innovations that improve our day-to-day lives and support the Nation's overall productivity and competitiveness. The Federal Government has long played a crucial role. This has always been, in the past, a very bipartisan issue, that the Federal Government invest in this basic, cutting-edge research and development. However, we have seen a very I think disturbing trend over the last few decades as R&D spending has fallen. The amount of money which the Federal Government puts into basic scientific research now is less than 1 percent of GDP. This is simply unacceptable. We have to look at basic scientific research as the seed corn for our economy.…”