The government has no place investing in research and development, they should instead be cutting taxes so individuals and companies can do the investment. When government invests, government wants to control, and it is both a fair and an accurate statement to say that the government ruins everything it tries to control, including itself.

Many of the biggest technological gains in the past 200 have come from government backed initiatives. The inter-continental railroad was funded by government backed loans. This enabled a major economic revolution 10 years after it’s completion. The space program was 100% government financed and gave the US two generations of engineers and technologist that gave us our technological leadership for the past four decades. The Manhattan project for the development of the atomic bomb (for good and bad) gave us our military might for decades and countless sciences advances in physics leading to other economic gains. We are very short sided to sacrifice our future for short term near sided gains. Their are programs that only a government can initiate and push forward before the private sector steps in. It is far too easy to nix spending because the popular opinion is government is inefficient. History has proven that our future success is only possible with long range public investment