Some excerpts:

“And here at the federal level, I have proposed doubling the federal commitment to the most basic critical — the most critical basic research in physical sciences over the next 10 years. I’ll tell you why I have. I think that the federal government can help leverage ideas. I know it’s in our national interest to spend taxpayers’ money on research. The research that we conduct today will enable future generations to remain competitive tomorrow. I don’t know if you know this or not, but the iPod came about because of a lot of federal research, or probably the most known one is the Internet. In other words, it makes sense to invest taxpayers’ money because there’s a greater good to be gained when it comes to investing in basic research…

“We need to have an adjunct teacher corps, to bring 30,000 math and science professionals into the classroom. Sometimes science isn’t viewed as cool. But we need to make sure that students understand that it is good to take science and engineering and math. As a matter of fact, we need to be able to connect the fact that the jobs of the 21st century, the high-paying, high-quality jobs will depend on a person’s ability to be able to be an engineer or a mathematician or a scientist.

And I want to thank John and your crowd for helping us with this American Competitiveness Initiative. It’s vital for our country that we take action now to make sure that we remain the leader in the world when it comes to the economy. “