Government funding goes to incumbent researchers, e.g. professors who have already made it. They're deeply incentivised to replicate the destructive system that they evolved themselves to thrive in. Peter Thiel quipped in his reddit AmA: "we have a Gresham's law in science", or briefly, "bad science drives out good"... I don't often find myself agreeing with Thiel but this perspective resonated with me.

Disclaimer: I am running a science kickstarter of sorts (pledge.indysci.org). Why do you think this is bad? Do you think that paternalistically people don't value science as much as they should? And why should we expect our elected officials that squabble over stupid partisan issues be any more enlightened in allocating science funding?