Reduced commitment to fundamental research and training would jeopardize our leadership in the world. Young people would choose other careers and our economic competitors would happily take advantage of our declining technological leadership. The pace of discovery would slow and rational treatments for cancer, Alzheimer 's disease and heart disease would be postponed beyond the date where many of us could benefit. Research universities and institutes would face painful downsizing. Elected officials now realize that downsizing basic research is a false economy for the country.
Taxpayers seem to agree.
In public opinion polls, the vast majority of citizens express support for scientific research and, in the case of biomedical research, the willingness to pay higher taxes if they went to medical research. However, the political support for research funding could evaporate as quickly as it has grown, so the friends of The Salk Institute might want to encourage their elected officials to support increases in the budgets for the NIH and the National Science Foundation.