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The other problem with this is that theoretical particle physics is all too fond of pulling rabbits out of a hat in order to explain things they don't really understand in the first place. You can use the maths to come up with any number of "imaginary" particles that will do exactly what you need and want them to do. The big bogeyman in that equation is actually finding them and proving they exist. It's quite easy to understand why some people wonder about funding things like this. You or I know what comes of research like this, but a great many people don't. Finding the Higgs, or any other new particle or phenomenon for that matter, is more than just a scientific curiosity. This all boils down to the raison detre of particle physics, and even theoretical (and possibly experimental) science itself. With the way things are, unless there's some concrete results, quite a few things in science are going to suffer.
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