This is somewhat disingenuous. Something like half of the grant is handed over to the University as overhead. Much of that is legit to cover things like labs but a lot of it goes to a cover a massive amount of administrative bloat.
Also, nobody really objects to the research that leads directly to stuff private industry can use. That's not what people want to cut.
Also, nobody really objects to the research that leads directly to stuff private industry can use. That's not what people want to cut.