Gruber, who was one of the architects
of the Affordable Care Act, says he’d advise the new president to follow the example of Eisenhower and other post World War II presidents: “During the decades after World War II, the U.S. government increased public research and development spending to 2 percent of the entire economy, while massively investing in science education at all levels. The result was not only the birth of virtually all modern technologies but also the creation of the greatest middle class the world has ever seen.”
Since then the U.S. has lagged other developed countries in government spending on science.”the result has been slow growth and falling behind our competitors in technology development and good job creation,” he says. “An increased investment of 0.5 percent of GDP in public R&D, paired with system wide devotion to improved and expanded science education, would create 4 million good jobs and make America the innovation engine of the world again.”
Gruber also cautions to make sure the benefits of that government spending are widely distributed, and not limited to "coastal ‘superstar’ cities." He says, “There are more than 100 U.S. communities that have the skills, educational institutions and high quality of living that can turn them into the next tech hubs. We should hold a competition to distribute federal funds to the locations that demonstrate the most potential to do so.”