Ornstein Column in Roll Call

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

I am off to Asia in mid-June and will see myself. djf


------ Forwarded Message
From: clark johnson <clarkjohnson () cpinternet com>
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 20:24:57 -0500
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
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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