The front-page New York Times obituary of Robert Edwards, the Nobel laureate co-inventor of in vitro fertilization — a technique to which 5 million people owe their lives — reports, "denied government support, the men resorted to private financing."
"In 1971, Dr. Edwards's application for research support from the British government was turned down… The two men obtained private funds and continued their work."
I'm not saying that the federal government should eliminate all medical or scientific research funding. But the next time someone makes the argument that any cuts in the budget for federal medical research means that the medical breakthroughs will not happen, the story of Robert Edwards and test-tube babies is a pretty good comeback.