"Advances in technology will continue to reach far into every sector of our economy. Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture, health care, and life sciences is directly related to scientific advancement"
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Technological progress is doing double duty here: it is framed as both destiny and policy lever, a way to make economic change feel inevitable while still justifying specific investments. Christopher Bond, a career Republican senator from Missouri, isn’t waxing poetic about innovation; he’s laying down a governing premise that turns science funding, R&D incentives, and pro-industry regulation into pragmatic necessities rather than ideological choices.
The line “will continue to reach far into every sector” reads like a neutral forecast, but it’s also a subtle warning: adapt or be left behind. Bond’s list of sectors is a rhetorical map of American power. “Defense” and “transportation” nod to federal procurement and infrastructure dollars. “Agriculture” signals the Midwest and farm-state politics, where biotech and mechanization are sold as competitiveness, not disruption. “Health care and life sciences” invoke both public good and high-growth markets, while carefully avoiding the messy distributional questions (who benefits, who gets displaced, who pays).
Most revealing is “directly related.” That phrase tries to collapse a complex chain of causality into something clean enough for a budget hearing: fund science, get jobs. It’s a persuasive compression aimed at colleagues and constituents who might balk at “research” as abstract spending. The subtext is triangulation: embrace modernity without sounding like a technocrat, marry patriotism to productivity, and position the state as an enabler of private-sector growth. The future is coming, Bond implies; the only question is whether America bankrolls it or buys it from someone else.
The line “will continue to reach far into every sector” reads like a neutral forecast, but it’s also a subtle warning: adapt or be left behind. Bond’s list of sectors is a rhetorical map of American power. “Defense” and “transportation” nod to federal procurement and infrastructure dollars. “Agriculture” signals the Midwest and farm-state politics, where biotech and mechanization are sold as competitiveness, not disruption. “Health care and life sciences” invoke both public good and high-growth markets, while carefully avoiding the messy distributional questions (who benefits, who gets displaced, who pays).
Most revealing is “directly related.” That phrase tries to collapse a complex chain of causality into something clean enough for a budget hearing: fund science, get jobs. It’s a persuasive compression aimed at colleagues and constituents who might balk at “research” as abstract spending. The subtext is triangulation: embrace modernity without sounding like a technocrat, marry patriotism to productivity, and position the state as an enabler of private-sector growth. The future is coming, Bond implies; the only question is whether America bankrolls it or buys it from someone else.
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| Topic | Science |
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