On the recordJune 16, 2015
That chart is very powerful. The trillions--with a T--will really balloon our budget, and really it is undoable. It gets to a level where it will exhaust, it will overwhelm other areas of investment that are required. But translate that from dollars into human suffering, pain, confusion, reduced quality of life. That is a calculus that needs to be made. If it is going to save us money and at the same time respond with that moral compass, why are we not doing that, why are we not responding? So, to me, that is where we are at. When you see the unleashing of technology, of research, of the potential for progress to be made, it is there. It is documented from so many perspectives in work that is done by the National Institutes of Health and others. For many, they will say, well, leave it to the private sector. No, there is a track record up there for this country to have stepped up to the plate and made a difference, for vaccines and other sought-for outcomes that affected people in a positive way. They gave them hope. Our government has a track record of having stepped up and invested in research where perhaps the private sector wouldn't go or where we have shaved some of the risk off of that demand for research in a public-private partnership. So it is there within our potential.…
