I've seen the impact of this nation's slow defunding of research. I was in a lab that did research on insects who are pests of crops. A lot of our work was fundamental, and could easily have been mocked by know-nothing Republican Congresspersons. But our ultimate goal was to find better (i.e., safer for the environment and for people) ways to prevent these pests from destroying crops. The last grant my lab had before I departed was from a defense (i.e. military) program...