Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, there is one type of innovation in which these Republicans are truly unexcelled--there is no competition. And that is the innovation in names, in naming these bills. They salute climate deniers and The Flat Earth Society by slashing funding for earth science that is strongly opposed by geophysicists and one academic after another. What do they call it? The ``America COMPETES Act.'' On this measure, its companion, they borrow almost $200 billion from anyone who will lend it to us to give mostly to the largest corporations, largely for doing research that they would be doing, even if they weren't rewarded. And they call that the ``American Research and Competitiveness Act.'' Now, that is true innovation. They don't need a credit; they ought to get a prize for being contortionists when it comes to labeling these measures. This particular bill just digs us deeper and deeper into debt, while adding very little to our research capability. That is truly unfortunate, since America's future competitiveness is in jeopardy. And that is outlined this very day in ``Innovation Lies on Weak Foundation,'' a New York Times economic column. As Eduardo Porter notes, ``Investment in research and development has flatlined over the last several years as a share of the economy . . . other countries are now leaving the United States behind . . . government budgets for basic research, the biggest source of financing for scientific inquiry . . .…”