“I think this fixation on top line dollar spent is very misguided and is not the way that any analytical scientist would pursue a budget process. … And I think spending more money on the wrong things is far worse than spending less money on the right things.”
Interesting Times · Geopolitics & World Affairs · October 2026
Tyler Cowen presses the White House science adviser on the administration's proposed cuts to federal research funding. Kratsios argues that the debate should be about what the money produces, not how much is spent.
Transcript
So right now, Congress has appropriated the same amount and we're spending that money. And I think back to your point, and I get- I
get that Congress is restoring funding, but in terms of the president's plan.
Yeah, I think what you're getting at is something that I deeply believe we need to think a lot more carefully at. And I think this fixation on top line dollar spent is very misguided and is not the way that any analytical scientist would pursue a budget process. And it's something that I very much struggle with when I deal with the community that tries to purportedly support science here in Washington. The most important thing that we should be doing is trying to find ways to make the greatest scientific discoveries to support the American people. And I think spending more money on the wrong things is far worse than spending less money on the right things. And this goes back to are we making the best use of those dollars? And I think that's what we get back to with all of the proposals that are in the Golden Age report of how can we actually spend those dollars in a way that can support Americans and make these discoveries more real for everyday Americans.
And for you, what makes an investment high ROI or high return on that investment?
This is a really important point to make. I think, one, we need to do the very important meta science work to actually be able to answer those questions. But I think it goes back actually to something that Van Verbusch said early in his report. Kind of at the very beginning of his report in the…
Now, you have a background in an investment company working with Peter Thiel, also in the AI company, Scale AI. How does that background, which is different from traditional science, how does that shape the plan you came up with, which is outlined in this book, Science, a New Golden Age?
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