Looking back over the 2011 budget deficit debate one thing's for certain: the political landscape and policy discussion hasn’t changed much at all and as a result our future fiscal and economic growth potential are threatened. In addition, our ability to address grand challenges like climate change and energy security become significantly less probable than they already are. That’s one of the key messages from a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and the Breakthrough...

On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union deployed Sputnik. The two-foot, 180-pound orb’s beeping was the starting gun of the space race and we in the U.S. seemed to be just putting our sneakers on. Despite President Eisenhower’s initial shrug, America freaked out – but in good way. In under a year, a Democratic Congress and the Republican President created and made operational the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The National Defense Education Act, which not only jump started...

Last week ITIF, along with the Breakthrough Institute and Americans for Energy Leadership released Counterpoint: Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, a fact sheet listing the numerous errors and misunderstandings found in Heritage's recent proposal to dismantle the Department of Energy.  The proposal was not only stunning in that if implemented it would nearly cripple the United States energy innovation system, but also because of the overwhelming use of failed logic to justify program budget...

The full fact sheet and the information contained in this post was produced by ITIF along with the Americans for Energy Leadership and the Breakthrough Institute. The full report titled Counterpoint: The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder can be found and downloaded here. Last week the Heritage Foundation released a policy "backgrounder" report calling for a near-dismantling of the Department of Energy's research budget, including key energy innovation programs that are investing in scientific...