People against this way of thinking can quote all of the things that federal funding help with in an attempt to show all that would be "lost" if the feds stopped the cash flow, but I don’t agree. I think that when the government gets out of the way, private organizations will step in – and probably do a better job of things in the long run. The transition will be painful, no doubt, because people and organizations are stuck on the idea that the government is the universal "bail-out." Welfare, social security, research funding, education, emergency relief – people think Uncle Sam is the answer to everything. He’s not.