While I wholeheartedly applaud all attempts at getting ANY government at all to spend more on science, technology and education, I am baffled at the constant American paranoia of its 'leadership' in science and math.

A couple of points:

1. It is OK for America to not "rule tech".

China has the most number of humans in the world. Statistically speaking, it shouldn't be surprising that they will eventually 'rule tech'.

American leadership in technology is an anomaly - it's representative of the historical advantages that the US has had and the deprivations of rest of the world. IOW, US is more like a one-eyed king in a country of the blind. As others pull themselves up, it's natural that this anomaly will be corrected somewhat.

2. America is not really lagging anyway.

The world's top universities are American (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Unive...), most of the Nobel laureates have been American (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_coun...), most of the high-tech companies are American (I don't even care to list), and a lot of people who are technically savvy eventually become American anyway. From outside at least, the US looks like a giant chain reaction of innovation that has spun out of control!

I guess "America is doing great!" won't make as sensational a headline as this one.