I hope Bernie can count on your vote.

First off I gotta say I love your optimism, but we have to go a round of questions first.

Also, part of it is cultural.

The sister thread agrees with you, but comes to a slightly different conclusion.

Bernie Sander's proposals for large tax increases provide the greatest opportunity for a discretionary budget increase.

This is the point you're going to have to support. Let's not forget he has a plan for that tax money to go towards things like health care and college tuition, which isn't a small bill to pay. American health care and American universities doubly so not only because we have the best in the world but also because they each have an industrial complex associated with them. Will spending he's planning be less than cuts the republicans might make? Bare in mind his exact plan probably won't pass, it'll be some edit that allows for a lot of corruption because that's how these things work.

Essentially, it all comes down to this: the candidate that will create the biggest discretionary budget is the most pro-research candidate.

I actually think I might agree with you... To be honest I'd like to see more data, but this does seem about right. My issue then is how can I really tell who is likely to have more money to throw my way? I don't really know where to get that data...

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Okay I looked shit up! So, using this and wikipedia, you're actually arguing the wrong side. Percent GDP is on average higher under republican presidencies. I haven't looked at the congress yet, but for presidencies republicans average 8.66% and Democrats average 7.74%