Letter: The United States Is In Danger Of Losing Its Competitive Edge The United States Is In Danger Of Losing Its Competitive Edge
January 20, 2012
The United States Is In Danger Of Losing Its Competitive Edge
The Honorable John Boehner The Honorable Joseph Biden
Speaker of the House President of the Senate
The Honorable Eric Cantor The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader of the House Majority Leader of the Senate
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Minority Leader of the House Minority Leader of the Senate
We, members of the Board of Directors of the American Security Project, are writing because we believe that the United States is in danger of losing its competitive edge. The American Security Project is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues.
The United States created the most dynamic economy in the world because our businesses and our government looked beyond the horizon. Whether we are talking about the railroads in the 1840s, aerospace in the 1960s, or the internet in the 1990s, Americans led the world into new industries because of the foresighted investments that had been made decades before.
Today, however, this leadership is at risk. Our country is at risk.
We have under-invested in the future. Investment in basic research and development is about 2.6% of GDP – significantly less than the 3% that we held as a standard through the 1960s. Meanwhile, over the last two years, private investment, defined by the Bureau of Economic Analysis as capital investments by both households and businesses, was the lowest, as a percentage of GDP, since World War II.
The cumulative effect of such data is to show that the U.S. is in danger of losing its competitive edge. We need government and business to look beyond short-term concerns – whether it is quarterly reports to Wall Street or biannual elections – and return to policies that will help America grow in the long term.
Ultimately, this is about priorities – not about ideology. Do we believe that it is in the national interest to spend more on a tax break for employee parking ($3.1 billion in 2011) than the Department of Energy spent on applied R&D in 2010 ($2.27 billion)? Is it right that we see China investing $34.6 billion in clean energy in 2009, while the U.S. invested only $18.6 billion? Will our businesses cede global leadership to foreign competitors because they fail to innovate and invest for the future?
Solutions are available. Investment in infrastructure that leverages dollars from the private sector for public good can quickly help return our highways, airways, waterways, and railroads to the world-class level they should be. Research into next-generation energy sources, like fusion, is ongoing at our national labs and roadmap for commercialization of fusion energy could encourage the public-private partnerships necessary to bring this game-changing technology to market.
We know in general what the solutions will look like; the problem is that we seem to lack the political will to work together and form a consensus. These problems require that business and our two political parties come together to overcome the inertia we suffer from today.
We hope that you will work together in a non-partisan way to implement the solutions to these challenges: that you will engage with the scientists, engineers, and businesspersons to dedicate a new ‘national mission’ ensuring that the 21st Century remains an American Century.
We stand by to support you in making the difficult decisions that lie ahead.
Sincerely,
Norman R. Augustine
Brigadier Stephen A Cheney, USMC (Ret.)
Nelson Cunningham
Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, USA (Ret.)
Admiral William Fallon, USN (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, USN (Ret.)
Hon. Gary Hart
Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, USA (Ret.)
General Lester L. Lyles, USAF (Ret.)
Ed Reilly
Hon. Warren B. Rudman
