For the first time in 20 years, the National Institutes of Health is receiving budget increases that are below current inflation levels. It is true that the NIH receives a large amount of money for research and medical science, but that amount is spread over multitudes of scientists. The administration will use this amount of funding to say, "look, science is receiving LOTS of money." The administration reports things in this purposefully dishonest way, as we well know. So don't believe it when they say that science funding is sufficient. The medical research discoveries being reported right now are coming from PREVIOUS investment dollars.
Funding had fallen to less than 1/3 of medical research grant applications at the end of 2003. Success rates then fell to 24.5% in 2004. Based on George Bush's 2005 budget, funding is decreased to 21.6%, falling to 21% or less in 2006. Very clearly a downward trend has been set by this administration. Success of grants being funded is falling, frustrations are rising, and American students are not entering research careers.
While America's training programs are stagnant or failing, Europe and Asia are rapidly expanding production of Ph.D.s. The same is true with respect to numbers of patents and papers published in scientific journals. As noted by Tom Friedman, the US has benefited from foreign talent for many years, because, while losing our own resource of young scientists, the foreign scientists here in our country were helping us at least tread water. Well, we're rapidly losing that resource as increasingly this talent is no longer coming to our country. Of course as we have painfully learned, it is unwise to be overly dependent on a foreign supply of any resource. We desperately need our own supply of scientists and science research, but the Bush administration is systematically reducing our ability to produce our own researchers, and is dismantling our science programs by underfunding them.
Science is being cut everywhere throughout our country. The Department of Energy's funding is facing a tremendous cut next year. How can this possibly be? The administration just told us that we are facing a huge energy problem. The National Science Foundation (NSF) suffered a significant slash in its budget this year even though it serves a major role in science education. The administration should also admit that we are facing an undeniable crisis in science and science education. The Veteran's Affairs' research programs are facing deep cuts for next year. How can this possibly be? The administration has repeatedly said that they support the troops with whatever they need. Words won't make things ok for American citizens - and that is all we are getting. In fact the words make things worse when American citizens believe them and then are lulled into a "false sense of well being."
We are falling farther and farther behind. Where will OUR future cures come from? Not from here. I can't afford the airfare to get to a medical center with the latest advances if it is located in Asia. Can you?
If we were to have a candidate who would support science and medical research, what would we tell them we want? What would be our vision? I don't think we have a vision about a lot of things right now. We are so busy being horrified by what is happening that we are unable to look ahead to what would be the right way to do things. I know that we have many dedicated "servants of the people" who read Kos. What should they know about our vision for science in America? We are losing it and I don't know if we can stop the hemorrhaging.