There is great excitement in the physical sciences, the public and politicians strongly support science and technology, and the country needs what we do. However, there are budgetary and political realities with which our discipline has to deal, and cohesive action is necessary. The National Defense budget is now only 20% of government outlays, while entitlements of various kinds account for 55% of government outlays. The remaining 25% is roughly equally divided between payment on the national debt and discretionary spending.
Since there is such enormous political pressure to balance the budget, while somehow not cutting anything but the discretionary line, it is essential to make the case strongly and well for support of the sciences as a whole. We must emphasize the huge "value added" that science brings to American life in every sphere from new discovery, to education, to economics, and to defense. This will involve scientists becoming much more involved in the political process than they have been recently -- "all politics is local" -- while also making every effort to discharge our civic and societal responsibilities.
Another major change that has occurred in spending patterns is that now 55% of the research budget at universities is going into the life sciences. The role that Physics plays in this area is much more substantial than people generally realize. The basic message is that there is a LOT of very stiff competition out there for the precious federal research dollar, and it is no way a given that the dollars will continue to flow to physics.
While growth in the NSF budget is expected to be modest, today that is a real triumph. Neal Lane and the Science Board are evidently interested in supporting research areas such as 'knowledge and distributed intelligence', which has to do with computation and information in all of its aspects. Another major area for emphasis is science education and a broader participation in science by all Americans. Again, while these topics are outside the traditional areas of research for physicists, we do make tremendous contributions to them. This needs to be stressed and developed further.
Last, we must continually emphasize the exciting and forefront research and education that we do, and be sure that we as scientists are focusing on frontier problems that the general public will -- at least to some extent -- be able to understand the rationale for supporting. In other words, this is an investment in the nation's future which we neglect at our peril. We can do these things, but it will take our serious attention and significant effort.