World. And the evidence is that these patent Innovation Box policies are not very good at that because what theyre targeting is the income generated from the patents rather than the research that leads to them. This is true of lots of r d tax credits. In holland they just designed one which is quite intelligent, i think, because it targets the research that leads to the r d. So the labor hired rather than the income generated from that r d. But i think we should remember that, for example, the act which in 1980 allowed publicly funded research to be patented. If you read that act, its really interesting. They also say we better make sure that the taxpayer doesnt pay twice, right . So just like year, i think the nih spent arounded 39 billion in research, both basic and applied. And the problem is what happens to the prices of these drugs . Do they reflect that input . So its not only and ive been reading a lot about this, but the pricing mechanism itself could be one way to be rewarded
Now that is 10 trillion. So there are not many places you can say i can take 10 trillion out of the spending stream to keep you healthier. Let me follow up on this now speaker gingrich. You are a conservative and as a result may have credibility than i do in some circumstances on the question on the role of government here. Why isnt it enough to count on private industry to do this . Why do we have to have a substantial investment from the federal government . Its a question about American History. [ inaudible ] and i are developing a project on why George Washington matters. And people dont often notice that the Founding Fathers wrote into the constitute a Patent Office because they so deeply believed in the future. They made investments. The First Federal highway was built during washingtons lifetime. They believed in improving things. They talked about them as improvements. Jefferson launched an expedition to the west and there was a Childrens Book on this called from sea to shining