By charging the NIH and NSF to fund high-risk, high-reward researches, Americans benefit by enjoying unmatched technological and medical luxuries that come about as a result of these publicly-funded projects.
But funding from the NIH and NSF has mostly vanished. This reduction greatly damages our nation's leadership position in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math as more and more research questions that could potentially improve the human condition cannot be funded.
To make matters worse, some politicians want to oversee the scientific peer-review process. This is ludicrous! Would we send an untrained man to lead soldiers into battle? Of course not! Thus, it does not make sense for Congress members who have minimal scientific training to tell scientists what to do!