The anti-innovation presidency

Behind all the theater of ‘Tech Week,’ Trump’s budget makes deeper cuts to research and development than any White House in modern history.

“Innovation” is one of those Washington priorities, like “security” or “the children,” that politicians in both parties tend to describe as investments rather than spending. Even as budget wars have raged on Capitol Hill, there’s been a fairly broad consensus that funding research and development is vital to American competitiveness. The Beltway seems to churn out an inexhaustible supply of bipartisan reports proclaiming that bigger government investments in science and technology today will pay economic dividends for taxpayers down the road.

This week has been “tech week” at the White House, and President Trump has jumped onto the rhetorical bandwagon, hailing the glories of innovation. “My administration is embracing a new spirit of innovation that will make life better for all Americans,” he told a group of technology leaders gathered in the Oval Office on Monday; he doubled down Thursday, promising another group of new-economy executives that his government would “help unleash technological breakthroughs that will transform our lives.”

But Trump’s 2018 budget goes the opposite direction: It proposes the deepest cuts in innovation investments that any administration has ever proposed.

Not only does the Trump budget slash climate science and clean energy research beloved by Trump’s critics, it whacks advanced manufacturing programs and fossil energy research catering to Trump’s supporters, as well as basic science and medical research beloved by almost everyone. It’s a powerful rejection of the innovation-industrial complex, and even though Congress is likely to ignore most of it, a similarly powerful reflection of Trump’s political war on Washington elites.

http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/06/23/the-anti-innovation-president-000464