Take a look at Britain. The government decided to freeze the science budget for the next four years at £4.6 billion. Researchers in Germany are getting a 7 percent increase in their budget. China will soon pass the US in numbers of patents.
If the election goes badly in two weeks, the US Congress is likley to go the same way. Even now there is no NIH budget for next year and, if the usual tradition holds, this means that there is a good chance of a freeze or, worse, indiscriminate across the board cuts.
To read more about the US, take a look at the New Scientist‘s The S Word blog.