Tim Ryan: “If you look at what the Democrats are offering, they say the Democrats do not have any ideas. That may sound good, but…”

“If you look at what the Democrats are offering, they say the Democrats do not have any ideas. That may sound good, but we are the party of ideas. We are beginning to communicate them, I think, in a way that is effective. If you look at Ms. Pelosi's innovation agenda that we came up with in our caucus by meeting with high-tech companies and asking them what they want, if you look at our competitiveness agenda that we have, investments in research and development, R&D funding has stayed flat under the President's watch, and it is way below what it was 20 years ago. If we are going to be competitive, we have to make some investments in research and development. We are blowing money by giving subsidies to the energy companies when we should invest it in basic research. I was in Israel in November. They are doing some fantastic things with venture capital and business incubators and research and development, and the Israeli companies have just surpassed Canada on the NASDAQ, and I asked one of the top dogs over there, what do we need to do in America to try to imitate what you are doing here? He said the biggest mistake you are making in the United States is not making investment in research and development, because of the tremendous impact that has leading to new innovations.…”