Don't worry, I wasn't proposing to cut funding. My point was simply that, if government hadn't taken over research since the 1940s, science would be in a better

Don't worry, I wasn't proposing to cut funding. My point was simply that, if government hadn't taken over research since the 1940s, science would be in a better fundamental shape right now. Alas, that did not happen, and killing the NSF overnight is probably a worse cure than the disease. Also, science is first and foremost a possession of humanity as a whole, not a tool of industrial domination.