"Wasteful" Government Spending

After weeks of listening to politicians talk about wasteful government discretionary spending, I wanted to note this article from the Kansas City Star in April, when we had our last budget fight:

Dr. Rajaram believes that in part that jump is coming from genetic trait released in 1991 by the Wheat Genetic and Genomic Resources Center at Kansas State University. It includes a gene that provides resistance to leaf rust, a disease that has devastated wheat since Roman times.
Since 1984, K-State’s wheat center has led a global effort in conserving and researching more than two-dozen wild wheat and goatgrass species, including more than 12,000 strains. More than 30,000 samples from the collection of wild wheat relatives, genetic stocks and improved genetic resources have been distributed to scientists in 45 countries and 39 states in the United States, free of cost or intellectual property claims.
Fifty improved wheat strains incorporating more than 50 novel disease and insect-resistant genes were developed, and many have been deployed in agriculture. In the Great Plains, this bounty of genes is protecting wheat crop from rust and viral diseases; and in the eastern United States, from the destructive Hessian fly.
These innovations have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the U.S. economy and protected the environment from pesticides that would otherwise be needed to protect genetically susceptible crops.
Back in the motel room, as the night progressed, CNN announced a breakthrough in budget negotiations; a government shutdown was averted and $78 billion chopped from the 2011 budget. It was surreal to watch because one of the eliminated programs from the budget was funding for the wheat center, which annually received $90,000 to $350,000 from 1984 to 2009, and $1 million in 2010.
The center’s craftsmen who conserve and fashion genetic tools and genetic resources for the world’s wheat industry had been disabled. Nobel laureate Borlaug’s words ring in my ears, “you cannot build world peace on empty stomachs.”

Cutting government spending in basic scientific and agricultural research is just plain stupid.  All that research combined wouldn't pay for 4 months of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.  When the Republicans won the 2010 elections, they started up a website to allow citizens to vote on government programs to eliminate.  One of the first chosen, the National Science Foundation.  I happened to have two former college roommates who have received NSF grants.  Both are brilliant, and the idea that such spending is wasteful is foolish.  The Republican war on science is just plain stupid, but so are some Republicans.  We are eating our seed corn, or in this case, seed wheat.