More Sequester Damage: America’s Scientific Preeminence Threatened

More evidence today from Jonathan Cohn on the damage being done by the GOP’s reckless use of the sequester to address the deficit (mostly a non-problem, which by the way is shrinking rapidly, though they won’t admit it).  Cohn cites the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, whose most recent piece was on the effects of the sequester on scientific research.  For instance, …

NIH underwrites about a quarter of all biomedical research in the U.S., making it the single largest financier of such research in the country—and the world. … Now, thanks to sequestration, it’s losing money and, as a result, funding fewer programs.

That lack of funding results in lines of research and development deferred, abandoned or foregone, and American competitiveness and innovation suffer as a result.  Lots of details in Cohn’s piece, but here’s his conclusion:

Today, the U.S. a world leader in innovation. That attracts capital and talent. But the U.S. advantage may not be permanent. As the Economist noted back in the spring, “These cuts will speed the erosion of American supremacy in research. In December Battelle, a research group, predicted that China would surpass America’s spending by 2023. Thanks to the sequester, that date may come earlier.” Mary Woolley, president and CEO at ResearchAmerica, has similar thoughts. “As other countries aggressively ramp up investments in research and development, taking a page from our playbook, we are funding lifesaving research in fits and starts,” she says. “If federal funding continues to decline, our leadership status in the short-term will be tenuous at best.”

Still, the most serious long-term impact may be on the science itself—on chemical pathways not discovered, mathematical models not perfected, and (for medicine) treatments not developed. We won’t feel the effects for many years. But, by then, it will be too late to reverse.

These insane Republicans are eating our seed corn!