Political Quotes

“The date was October 4, 1957, and the time was 7:28 p.m. when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. It was a wake- up call to the United States, and it was perceived as an existential threat. The reaction to that was a focus by our Federal Government on national research, on basic research to drive innovation, to step up to that perception of threat. The outcome of that was extraordinary scientific breakthroughs. I often point to the cell phone in my pocket. A lot of the technologies in that cell phone, from the lithium battery that powers it, to the touch screen that allows me to navigate on it, to the Internet that helps me find a delicious Chinese restaurant to go have dinner, to the GPS system that helps me navigate my way to that restaurant--all of those innovations, the basic research behind it was funded by the exact same venture capitalist, Uncle Sam. Part of the American Prosperity Agenda that the New Democrat Coalition has put forward is focused on redoubling our investment in basic research, because the reality is that we don't have Sputnik being launched by the former Soviet Union. The reality is we face a Sputnik moment every single day with the threat of new innovation happening someplace else and jobs being created someplace else. You heard my friend suggest that research and development, as a percentage of gross domestic product since the early 1960s, has declined by nearly two-thirds just in these last four decades.…”