In the election year of 2002, Congress promised to invest in America's future by doubling the budget for the National Science Foundation by 2007. Instead, after getting back into office this time, they're cutting back. It's long been considered a given that long-term economic growth is powered in part by basic scientific research, the sort that the federal government is best positioned to support.
"The science foundation helped finance research that led to Web browsers, like Internet Explorer and Netscape, and to search engines like Google. Its research has produced advances in fields from astronomy to zoology, including weather forecasting, nanotechnology, highway safety and climate change," according to the New York Times.
"At the University of Southern California, the foundation is supporting research on an artificial retina, to restore sight to blind people, and on silicon chips that could be implanted in the brain to replace neurons damaged by disease or injury."
But Congress just didn't have any money for it, right? They're just being responsible, right? So what did they manage to fund? The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and bathhouses in Hot Springs, Arkansas (but not New York City, you can be sure). Hundreds if not thousands of similar projects got funded -- all perhaps worthy and all deserving of local support but not in need of federal funding, especially if your top priority can't be met.
