Yesterday, I posted about Trump’s attacks on the basic research that generates medical breakthroughs, and the critical importance of the government grants that fund that research. Medical advances are obviously salient to the general public; we care about cures for the diseases that cause death and suffering, and when we understand the significance of assaults on the research that makes those breakthroughs possible, we oppose them.
What is less well understood is that basic research funded by government has given America its global dominance in technology and innovation.
A recent essay from the Washington Post reminds readers what is at stake as Musk and Trump wreak havoc with those research grants. reminding us that “we are the nation that spawned the internet and GPS, and has the most Nobel laureates curing deadly diseases, making intelligent machines and shedding light on the dark secrets of the universe.”
Whether they are geeks in garages or eggheads in university labs, American entrepreneurs have built their ideas and fortunes on the back of basic research supported by taxpayers, who then reap the rewards. It’s not an accident of geography or artifact of culture that the United States has bred some of the best inventors of the 20th and 21st century. The hidden engine of the country’s illustrious track record has been the grants given to academic researchers by federal agencies that the U.S. DOGE Service has been decimating and that President Donald Trump proposes to shrink catastrophically in the next budget.
Lithium-ion batteries that power your smartphone and computer, weather forecasts that help you figure out what to wear, wings of airplanes that take you on vacation and all the messaging you do online can be traced to the symbiosis between research funded by government and private industry, the scaffolding for mind-melds of scholars and entrepreneurs. Moderna’s multibillion-dollar coronavirus vaccine that saved millions of lives owes its origins to decades of research on mRNA, viruses and vaccines that was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Google arose from a National Science Foundation digital libraries grant that supported then-Stanford University graduate student Larry Page. We have QR codes, barcodes and MRIs today because of basic research investments in mathematics and physics.
The essay explains why the free market will not fill the gap. Corporate and business research understandably has a narrower focus and shorter time horizon than the basic research funded by government. Its timelines are adequate for building a somewhat better gadget, but there is no business purpose to be served for funding open-ended questions with no immediate, obvious payoff–questions that, over time, have yielded the big breakthroughs.
Giving out grants for what might look frivolous or wasteful on the surface is a feature, not a bug, of publicly funded research. Consider that Agriculture Department and NIH grants to study chemicals in wild yams led to cortisone and medical steroids becoming widely affordable. Or that knowing more about the fruit fly has aided discoveries related to human aging, Parkinson’s disease and cancer.
We all benefit greatly from what the author calls “America’s innovation engine.” Yet Congress is about to allow the Trump administration to break it, because most of the general public doesn’t yet see–or understand– what’s being lost.
The most profitable companies in the country continue to trade on investments in research made decades ago, while political leaders strip the next generation of the chance to become groundbreaking inventors and innovators. Preventing such entrepreneurs from rising might even protect the big companies’ profits. Little wonder, then, that many of the richest men in the world — men who call themselves innovators — have done little to protect the invention engine from Trump’s havoc. Or that the richest of them, Elon Musk, has even been an architect of its destruction. Meanwhile, Musk keeps boosting his own companies with public funds, proving that at least his private-sector innovation depends on the government he is stripping for parts.
In the late 20th century, the United States invested in knowledge while other countries invested in infrastructure projects that were more visible and politically palatable. As a result, their growth stagnated while America’s thrived. America’s investments in research built great universities that became magnets for the world’s brightest minds– and for the immigrants who founded major companies in the United States.
As the author concluded,
There is no plainer betrayal of the MAGA promise to restore the nation’s storied past than to destroy this legacy of invention. What we’re losing is far more important, however, than the pride one felt being part of that America. We’re losing the country’s future.
Morons Are Governing America. Megalomaniacs Are Gutting America. And the majority of SCOTUS, appointed and controlled by the greediest moron of them all cede more of their power to him. It will take more resistance than has thus far been generated to defeat them. Waiting to be saved is not a winning strategy. Neither is despair. Consider how you can help and DO it.
the Big Beautiful Bill needs more analysis. If silencers on guns won’t be taxed…what the? Then there is the removal of any kind of “break” for home solar. Made in America solar panels is a great opportunity so why removed incentive? The unitary executive theory might work with a compassionate intelligent president but when you have the UET used for personal gain and retribution – there are no real brakes. The chaos caused by intentionally writing orders to be thrown into the courts will last beyond the next 3 years unless we can get a Democratic Congress elected to hector this administration by producing an immigration bill, supplementing infrastructure, restoring environmental legislation and regulating crypto (hopefully to the detriment of Crypto Don) Work needs to be done to deflect from his destruction to science etc. Not enough room here about his slash and burn politics
As most of us have concluded, besides theft at the federal government level, there is also oligarchic control. Who do you think has benefited the most from our $1 trillion military budget?
Big Oil has already done studies on climate change. We’ve discovered that they’ve known for decades and buried the results. Why does Big Oil want the government to learn about the significant source of contributing to climate change?
Cutting public media is a no-brainer. It adds nothing to our existing media landscape and is mainly funded by the oligarchy. They control all the media outlets except those entities and individuals on Substack who went there because they were being throttled everywhere else. Those who went to Google-controlled YouTube were blocked from making money.
I used Google Gemini (which is Google AI) to research why the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 recommends cutting research at the federal government level. It started spitting out paragraphs but suddenly stopped, and a message popped up saying that Gemini could “only respond to text.” WTH does that mean? LOL It means Google prevents you from researching Project 2025.
So, I cut and pasted my question and entered it into Deepseek AI, which is a tech company owned by a Chinese company. It gave me all I wanted and more. It even summarized the results at the end. The Republicans only want research that concludes their talking points and beliefs. No social science studies. No climate change studies. No medical research studies showing that medical marijuana is more effective and safer than what Big Pharma sells at extremely high profit margins. 😉
This list goes on, which is why they want only political appointees to control the research instead of letting the government fund independent research studies and taking a chance that a discovery could harm the oligarchy.
It’s about control and not allowing any studies that could harm the oligarchy’s profit margins. It’s a waste of time to show all the excellent research results unless they support our oligarchy’s profits. If you think the Democratic Party opposes the BBB, take a look at the final vote of one Republican while several didn’t vote, and one abstained. In other words, it was a totally performative action. The oligarchy also controls the DNC. 😉
We know the difference that networked computers have made in our daily lives. I cannot think of a single corporation that does not rely on its network.
Computers, to the uninitiated, are magical, but from a perspective of close association with them over my entire life, I view them as information logistics systems with warehouses, ships, planes, trucks, cars, terminals, and warehouses. Humans manufacture information minute by minute and turn it over to an instant delivery unit, which zips it everywhere it is supposed to go. We did all of that to ourselves because we knew how to.
Why do we know how? Both government and private resources contributed to all of that magic. The pervasiveness of networked systems in a country is a solid indicator of progress.
President Eisenhower envisioned a highway system moving goods efficiently and put together the will, the money, and the necessary natural resources. Now it is fundamental to the logistics of relocating stuff. Networked computers are analogous for relocating knowledge.
Trump rarely uses either system, but unknown to him, both systems are fundamental to life here.
He is functionally illiterate but believes he is a capable leader because, in his opinion, there has been enough progress to make him wealthy, so the hell with the future.
Enough people believe the same to have given him power here and now. He is knee-deep in turning off progress while the rest of the world is not pausing for a single moment in creating a brighter future.
Standing still is the same as rapidly moving backwards in terms of influence. Now that is what the country is doing, so we must prepare for second-class lives in the future.
Are you OK with being second-class? I’m not. We have to stop this madness because we know how wrong it is. Are you ready to do that?
Obviously what’s happening is what has already happened in history! Does anyone think that somehow today is any different than yesterday? Or this millennia is really any different than the previous? The humanity has somehow had an epiphany on how to conduct itself for the betterment of all?
Who was asleep at the switch? If you recall before Donald Trump’s first electoral victory, almost every single news organization was crowing on the death of the Republican party. But obviously that was mistaken. Now we have the big freak out. Now, after the best imitation of The Three stooges by the Democratic party, they are trying to drill water letter outers, as Moe used to say, in the bottom of the boat.
Seriously, does anyone think fixing is on the table? An attempt to overcome what’s happening, there would have to be some sort of tremendous event, but what would that entail?
I believe that it was mentioned in previous comments, that Rex 84, or readiness exercise 84, would be part of the conglomeration of events which would boggle the mind of thinking people. Because when you give yourself the ability to get rid of birthright citizenship, it doesn’t just stop with a certain targeted group. It will end up being used against everyone who is a beneficiary of birthright citizenship. That means almost every single person in this country. If you don’t walk the chalk line, you’re going to be shipped out.
The gulags that were discussed in Rex84, which had been built for decades, are being used right now. They are also building gigantic detention centers overseas. That other countries will use along with this one, and stuff more and more people into those facilities. You think that won’t be very distressing? People are going to believe the world is coming to an end. And for all intents and purposes, they would be correct.
The time to reverse course has been passed. Now, the raft has hit the White water. And just like previous times in history, the Roman empire the most recent, besides right now, shows a coming dark age, which the uber wealthy are preparing for. They are building their own cities, why? Because they are preparing for what they have wrought. But those cities won’t save them, it’s been tried before. Look at the Greek empire, the Babylonian empire, the Persian empire, the Egyptian empire, the Minoan empire.
Look at the Romans, now you have Italy. Look at the Persians, now you have Iran. Look at Alexander’s Greek empire, now you have Greece. Look at the Babylonian empire, now you have Iraq. The Egyptian empire, now you have Egypt. You had the influential Minoan empire, now you have? Nothing!
You have the British empire, which the Sun never set, now you have England! Of course England helped Birth the United States of america, and, Australia amongst others, and it’s time for those siblings or children of England to face the same fate. Because the greed of the wealthy always overcome the will of the people. Because, the people are always asleep at the switch. Always looking the wrong way, and always listening to the brainiacs bamboozling themselves and everyone else with kumbaya, conjunctive with some golden age.
This planet can only take so much human ignorance. And as Neil Degrassi Tyson said, the reason you haven’t met the aliens, is because they’ve destroyed themselves before any others show up. What we perceive as intellect isn’t necessarily smart.
AMEN Todd. You nailed it.
Yes, todd, the Republicans only want that which will enrich them further, “Damn reality, full speed ahead!”
The tools provided in the Constitution to get us out of the mess we have created are inadequate for the job. I’m not going to re-post the succession list. There’s not a single person on that list who wouldn’t be as bad or worse than Orange Jesus. I realize just how shocking that is, but it is a fact. Just think how much worse off we would be if POTUS actually had the big beautiful brain he boasts of? They are all bullies with money and they don’t want to change the direction we’re heading.
And one little tidbit from yesterday added on: Trump has told Harvard to get rid of all its foreign students and banned them form taking in more foreign students.
People on this, and other blogs, talk about “doing something”. Well, if we expect the 2026 election to be that something, I’d bet that Trump will suspend the election AND the Constitution as the protest community gets bigger and noisier. His minions can only insulate him from those protests for so long. What do we do then?
Vernon, I’ve been saying since January that the orange goblin (or, more likely, his handlers like Gestapo Steve Miller) will manufacture an “emergency” toward the end of next year, declare martial law, and suspend all elections indefinitely. Congress and SCOTUS will sit mutely by and complicitly enable the destruction of our republic. Traitors, one and all.
It was reported that with the cuts that the big bill is aiming for in Medicaid will allow the present government to funnel a lot more money into fighting immigration and building internment camps. Senator Warren said a camp for 100,000 people is planned for the border.
Senator Warren also said that the “golden dome” that trump wants isn’t feasible and that it’s a scheme to funnel monies to Musk.
The government “police” dressed in black and wearing masks that blend in with ice and local police, look more like the men who raided the Capitol on 1/6. It’s tragic to funnel US resources toward authoritarian control methods, walls and internment camps, weapons of war and refitting the flying palace for trump instead of continuing research for improvement of our quality of life.
I am reminded of when the Republicans claimed that Al Gore said he invented the Internet and laughed.
Al Gore said he was “responsible for” the Internet. Vint Cerf was one of the people that actually created the Internet. He agreed with Gore.
What did Gore do? Congress, in their ignorance, wanted to cut all funding for the project. Al Gore, being a geek, understood the importance of basic research and insisted that the money keep flowing. Gore won the funding argument and we got the Internet.
Today’s MAGA congress would have let it die.
Note – many of the European telecoms tried to create an internet, but each wanted proprietary rights to own it – dozens of incompatible internets. DARPA created one, unified protocol on the taxpayers’ dime. That’s why we have the Internet today. Phones only recently became compatible. Electronic Medical Records still aren’t completely so. Private industry puts the emphasis on ownership.
Rambling more – Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web so that ANY browser could render a webpage. Now, thanks to the profit motive, there are many pages that say “best viewed with” a particular browser — or only can be viewed with a particular browser. Berners-Lee was at CERN, working on the European tax payers dime. That’s why we have the Web. Good things come from publicly funded research.
You quote from the WaPo includes this:
Preventing such entrepreneurs from rising might even protect the big companies’ profits
I am reminded that Kodak actually invented digital photography in 1976, and that “corporate” buried it, for fear of cutting into the profits of is film business. Fifty years later we know how well that worked out for them, and for Rochester NY.