[searine]

> but I don’t know that these are the best exemplars of cutting edge science

Then you simply aren't familiar with their work. These (plus NIH, DOE, DOD etc.) are the engines of a large portion of the world's science.

The engine is starved and it is going to destroy American industry.

[baby_souffle]

> Then you simply aren't familiar with their work. These (and NIH) are the engines of a large portion of the world's science.

The problem is that not all cutting edge science is "sexy". NOAA and NASA are doing some _really_ cool stuff with weather monitoring / climate predicting. Sexy? Arguably no. Unless the weather app on your phone is sexy.

Important? I'd argue that it's critical that we keep getting better at it.

[apical_dendrite]

And some important work is even less sexy than that. People like Ted Cruz love to mock work on animal models, because if you don't know anything about the field it sounds ridiculous ("look at these idiots wasting money putting shrimp on a treadmill"). But finding a simpler animal model has been one of the most successful ways to understand biological systems, and we've found all sorts of useful things by looking at how animals solve problems.

[andsoitis]

> are the engines of a large portion of the world's science.

the article is meant to educate and inform, so inform the reader, who might know that fact, of it and some evidence to characterize the dynamic.

when you preach to the choir, you miss a chance to widen the circle of empathy.