By what metric are we "nowhere near" productive in how we fund research?

Spending as a % of budget. I feel that was obvious given the article.

I suspect you're reading something that I didn't write though - I'm just pointing the US government doesn't have spare money lying around to increase their funding of science projects. It isn't a case of "oh we'll just budget a bit more for science". There are enormous cuts/tax increases needed before that conversation can even begin.