Nancy Pelosi Claims Federal Government Invented the iPhone

June 12, 2016 •

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed in a hearing that, “In this smartphone, almost everything came from federal investments in research … Federal research invented it.” That’s a pretty big leap, going from funding research in individual components to claiming sole responsibility for inventing a specific configuration of technologies. I will concede that federally-funded research made the smartphone possible, though not necessarily the iPhone. Just like I will freely state that federally-funded research made the modern Internet possible. But to utterly discount and devalue the blood, sweat and tears that hundreds and thousands of inventors, craftspeople, software developers, designers, factory workers and many, many others have contributed is pure, unabashed arrogance.

Do you know what makes federally-funded research possible? Taxpayers.