A new Commerce Department report makes the case for aggressive federal government investment in the "innovative capacity of the United States" to stimulate economic growth and, ultimately, create high-paying, sustainable jobs. It's an exhaustive, well researched report, and one whose recommendations deserve further scrutiny.

The 160-page report notes how government investments in "the building blocks of innovation"--basic research, education, and infrastructure--have laid the groundwork for advances in information technology, science, medicine, transportation, agriculture, and many other areas over the years. The report clangs six "alarms," arguing that the U.S. is slipping when it comes to job creation, middle class incomes, manufacturing, innovation, education, and infrastructure. In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama touched on the themes the report delves into. "We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world," Obama said, while also acknowledging that we must do so in a fiscally responsible way. 

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