Federal Waste on R&D

    I have touched on this subject previously, but it deserves another attack.
    President Obama recently submitted his 10-week late budget for 2014. Previous reports are that the total budget will go nowhere, but Congress has already demonstrated a propensity for accepting certain portions. For some unknown reason, Congress appears to favor significant funding of various government agencies for Research and Development.
    President Obama included in his 2014 budget a 1.3% increase in R&D expenditures for 2014. The total R&D budget for the agencies would be $143 billion. The question is simple. Do you want to spend $1000 per year for yourself and another $1000 per year for every one of your family members on something which you don't understand? I am not being critical of your understanding ability. I'm only pointing out that the expenditure would be for something, which is not clearly defined. It does not fit the category of clarity, such as lunch for students or the purchase of 14 new fighter planes. By its nature, R&D is nebulous. It is either a search for something now unknown or an investigation of details on known things or events, further information of which is likely to be of no value to the general public.
    Of the proposed $143 billion expenditure, half is proposed for Research and Development In the Department of Defense. For such expenditure, I have little objection, because there are foreign entities with strong desires to do us physical damage.  Cite the bellicose rhetoric from North Korea and Iran.. As those countries increase their technological capability, we need to stay one step ahead of them on matters of defense. In addition, I can think of one specific area requiring Research and Development. That is an appropriate defense against roadside bombs. We have recently heard of another five soldiers, who have been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. This has been going on for many years and has actually led to the continuing solicitation for public funding of wounded veterans. I think it's a shame that we have not resolved this problem earlier, but better late than never.
    For the other government agencies, including the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Commerce, I see no basic reason why these agencies should be doing any R&D. Private companies and organizations are much more adept at specifying specific objectives for improving their operations and controlling the programs toward those objectives. In other words they look for success in a new product or process. Conversely, the government objective is only to spend money.
    I call on Congress to get off the notion that R&D by federal agencies is an important endeavor requiring the use of taxpayer funds. It is ridiculous in these times of budgetary imbalance and tremendous national debt to consider any increase in R&D agency funding, when the basic funding should be cut to the bone.