Want to Fix Politics? Start by Saving Science

Dear Friends,

If you’re wondering why American politics feels so toxic, here’s a reason you may not have considered: we’ve stopped building a future people can believe in.

Historically, technological breakthroughs created new industries, new wealth, and most importantly—new possibilities. That made political compromise easier. Even if reform hurt some groups in the short term, growth ensured there was enough to go around. People could imagine a better future and believed their lives, or at least their children’s lives, would improve.

But when innovation slows, hope disappears. Politics turns zero-sum. Every debate becomes a brutal fight over who will lose, because there’s no longer a vision of how anyone might win.

And right now, at the exact moment when we’re on the edge of real breakthroughs—affordable clean energy, cancer treatments that work, AI-driven scientific discovery—Washington is slamming the brakes.

As discussed in my Bloomberg Opinion column, the administration is proposing a 55% cut to the National Science Foundation and a 40% cut to the NIH. University research budgets are shrinking. The world’s best scientists no longer see America as the place to do their most important work.

These aren’t just bad policy decisions—they’re existential threats to our democracy. Without new discoveries to fuel growth, reform becomes impossible and polarization inevitable.

If we won’t fund solutions, are we prepared to live with the consequences of the problems we leave behind? When cancer treatments stall, when clean energy remains out of reach, when healthcare costs rise and life expectancy falls—will we accept that outcome as inevitable?

– Gautam

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