[IP] Ornstein Column in Roll Call
I am off to Asia in mid-June and will see myself. djf
------ Forwarded Message
From: clark johnson <clarkjohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 20:24:57 -0500
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fwd: RE: Ornstein Column in Roll Call
Dave-
Did you see this?
> Bad Policy Choices Are Worrisome for U.S. Economy's Future
>
> April 20, 2005
> By Norman Ornstein,
> Roll Call Contributing Writer
>
> I recently returned from nearly two weeks in Asia, interacting with
> people from across the continent at a conference in Cambodia and
> traveling to Vietnam and other places in the region. The vibrancy in
> Asia is staggering, as is the combination of rising nationalism and a
> growing sense of continental identity.
>
> But it is Asia's economic dynamism that stands out the most. Of course,
> Americans feel the results of that economic dynamism daily, in rising
> gasoline prices driven in part by the insatiable demand for energy in
> China and India. And the impact is lurking in another arena - the Asian
> central banks that hold three-fourths of the dollars outstanding,
> financing our budget and trade deficits and maintaining some
> considerable control over our economic well-being.
>
> It is not just India and China that represent the future of Asian growth
> and power. Japan seems finally to have turned a corner after a decade of
> stagnation, although it still faces relatively modest economic growth.
> Other countries have major assets and robust futures as well, including
> Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. All are expanding their
> economic bases; all are turning out impressive numbers of scientists and
> engineers to take advantage of the cutting-edge technologies that will
> help drive the economies of the future.
>
> Unlike many observers, I did not come back to the United States
> believing that China will leave us in the dust, or that the American
> economy faces a bleak future. We have heard that story before - about
> Japan, just to name one rival - and it has proved false. The United
> States has strengths - in infrastructure, culture, education, freedom,
> rule of law, environmental protection, size and heterogeneity - that no
> one else can match or approach.
>
> But I am growing increasingly alarmed, less because of the dynamism in
> Asia and more because of our blindness and obtuseness when it comes to
> our crown jewel: our overwhelming lead in basic research and our
> position as home to the best scientists in the world.
>
> Basic research is the real building block of economic growth, and here
> we have had the franchise; just look at the number of Nobel Prize
> winners from the United States compared to the rest of the world
> combined. Our academic institutions and research labs have been magnets
> attracting, and often keeping, the best and the brightest. Our academic
> openness and our culture of freedom have encouraged good research and
> challenges to orthodoxy. Our politicians have recognized that most basic
> research has to be funded by the government because there is scant
> short-term economic benefit for most businesses to do it themselves.
>
> But now, in a variety of ways, we are frittering away this asset, and
> for no good reason. Start with the federal budget. Basic research has
> been concentrated in a few key institutions: the National Institutes of
> Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of
> Standards and Technology, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
> Agency at the Pentagon. After a series of pledges to double the NIH
> budget and then keep it on a growth path, NIH has stagnated. Budget
> growth for next year is one-half of 1 percent, which will be below
> inflation for the first time since the 1980s, at a time when the need
> for more biomedical research is obvious.
>
> The NSF budget is slated to grow by 2 percent, leaving it $3 billion
> below the funding level Congress promised in 2002. At NIST, the Bush
> administration is trying to eliminate the Advanced Technology Program
> and to slash the Manufacturing Extension Partnership by 57 percent. At
> DARPA, which originated the Internet but where computer science research
> has been flat for several years, the money going to university
> researchers has fallen precipitously, along with a larger focus on
> applied research for the here and now.
>
> To quote my colleague, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), this set of
> budget priorities is insane. But the budget is only a part of it. Our
> visa policies, understandable as they are after Sept. 11, 2001, are
> keeping out the best and brightest foreign students and driving out some
> of the best international scholars, leading other countries, such as
> Australia, France and Germany, to seize the opportunity to enhance their
> own research capabilities.
>
> Our decisions to curtail much research on stem cells is creating
> opportunities elsewhere: Some of our best scientists are headed for
> Singapore. The new NIH ethics rules are driving out top scientists and
> causing others to reconsider their willingness to go to NIH.
>
> A half-century ago, we could count on the private sector to finance
> crown jewels like Bell Labs and do a great deal of the basic research
> that made America the world's leader. No more. To be sure, Silicon
> Valley still steps up to the plate, and our pharmaceutical industry does
> nearly all the cutting-edge drug research for the world. But much of the
> information-technology and drug research has been heavily subsidized by
> the federal government. And other heavy-handed government policies may
> drain pharmaceutical company revenues enough to cut their research and
> development.
>
> It is gut check time. The foolish fiscal policies that keep big
> entitlements off the table, won't consider revenues along with spending,
> and have turned the one-sixth of the budget that is discretionary into a
> vicious, zero-sum game, are truly eating our seed corn in this critical
> area. Somebody needs to get the White House to wake up, and Congress to
> understand what it is mindlessly doing.
>
> Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise
> Institute.
>
> Copyright 2005 (c) Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.
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