Double down on military basic research.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Technology Tomorrow

* A bumper sticker handed out at the recent Space Symposium in Colorado Springs serves as a reminder that the U.S. military's contributions to society go beyond providing security.

"GPS: FREE GLOBAL NAVIGATION: Courtesy of Air Force Space Command," the sticker read.

The Defense Department established the Global Positioning System in 1973 and spent some $12 billion developing and deploying it before it became operational in 1990. Without the basic research and U.S. government investment in the program, it's difficult to see how the benefits of a global navigation and timing system would exist today.

As the deficit hawks and defense hawks in Congress fight for the soul of the Republican Party, it's a good time to remember the old axiom: "In order to make money, you have to spend money."

A 2011 report for NDP Consulting authored by Nam D. Pham pegged the yearly direct U.S. economic impact of the GPS industry at $67.6 billion, with some 130,000 jobs in GPS manufacturing alone and another 3.3 million workers who depend on the technology to carry out their jobs.

Cutting basic and applied research accounts at government-funded labs that create such technologies is shortsighted. If anything, the budget request should be doubling down. The Obama administration in the 2016 budget proposal cut military basic research accounts by 8 percent.

Meanwhile, there are those in the deficit hawk coalition--tea party members, Libertarians and such--who will post statements on social media sites that the "government doesn't create jobs." They will qualify this notion with: "outside of lobbyists, lawyers and government employees, of course."

The idea that government doesn't create jobs is laughable. It would be difficult to calculate the number of positions that basic and applied research funded by U.S. taxpayers have brought forth. It's easier to count the number of industries.

There would be no GPS if there were no rockets to launch them on. The Army, Air Force and NASA ushered the United States into the space age as the nation squared off with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. From that also sprung the global satellite telecommunications system, commercially available remote sensing and probably soon, space tourism.

More down to Earth, Congress funds the National Human Genome Research Institute at about $499 million per year. A June 2013 report by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice said between 1988 and 2012, the project, associated research and...