The Obama administration has cut funding for the Constellation program. That means no more flights into space for the United States. This is representitive of everything Obama's about. What is Obama about, no one asked for 3 years? Obama, as a former lawyer, seems to be about agreement; and the worst of all things- Bipartisanship.
That's right, that thing all the talking heads blather on about every election season, 'bipartisanship'. You guys wanted it, right? Compromise? Well Republicans and Democrats are more than willing to compromise when it comes to something that screws you and doesn't effect them. And Obama seems perfectly willing to concede anything to beat a 'deadline'.
They're getting a lot done in D.C. these days. Everyone in the capital agrees our national debt is the only issue to be concerned about. It's not as if we could just leave the middle east, tax the super rich and go back to watching the ball game. No, this is a serious crisis. So serious that anything that Americans like(except war) is on the chopping block(except war). Like Social Security and the Space Shuttle program(but not war).
Truth be told I thought the Space Shuttle program was kind of stupid and useless. So did many other simple-minded unpatriotic Americans- who thought that the extraordinary cost of exploring space could be better spent on domestic matters. Of course, that's making the foolish assumption that the government is going to spend it's capital on bettering the lives of Americans. Ha!
Obama is the first president with the nerve to stop regular flights into space. I wouldn't do it, would you? To have no more Space Shuttle flights is saying in effect:
"It was a good run, America, but we're not a superpower anymore, we're just like some enormous shitty European country with way more Christians."
Okay, we all know that to be true, but you don't point it out! We're supposed to keep pretending America ended Nazism, Fascism and Jihad and keep flying into space and hope that the next generation finally makes the United States as awesome as it should be.
It's difficult to HOPE when our president cuts the funding of our legacy.
1 Unmanned space exploration is generally more effective than manned space exploration: if we swap out the shuttle for a slew of robots, we can roboticize the solar system.
ReplyDelete2 Having manned space exploration is important, though: it is useful, scientifically. It's also deeply inspiring.
3 I think it's interesting how the deficit all of a sudden became a huge problem last November, and how it wasn't a problem since the Clinton years.
4 Here's my plan to fix the deficit:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html?choices=43u4d5qu
5 Actually, that's not my plan. My plan is to eliminate the Department of Defense (we can keep the Coast Guard and National Guard), jack up the Social Security eligibility age to 75, to keep pace with increasing lifespans, and eliminate tax breaks to corporations.
But, seriously: people overestimate the costs of things like NASA, thinking it's ~20% of the Federal budget, as of 1996:
http://si.academia.edu/RogerLaunius/Papers/93299/_Public_Opinion_Polls_and_Perceptions_of_US_Human_Spaceflight_
and foreign aid, at ~25%:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/670.php
I used to think that if we cut pork barrel appropriations, that would help fix the deficit. Barely. Spending on science, foreign aid, and even pork, are rounding errors compared to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and defense (war).
@ 3- Graham already wrote exactly what I think about the 'deficit crisis.'(EZ money)
ReplyDeleteAmericans are extremely inventive, and are pioneers, at least in image. The cutting of NASA, which as you say didn't cost very much comparatively, makes me upset because it's essentially defunding one of the truly great things about this place.
I agree with most of your points about the budget. The biggest piece of the pie is military spending. It freaks too many people out to mess with it, but it should be cut. By a lot.
Alex--I don't agree with the idea that we should raise the retirement age. I think it would act as an impediment to job creation, which in my understanding should be our number one priority. There are tons of things that would make Social Security more "viable" like giving the government collective bargaining powers on the costs of medications (the DoD can haggle with suppliers about the cost of staples and paperclips, but SS can't do that for Lipitor. Why I wonder? Oh right: because that would hurt Big Pharma's bottom line). The best healthcare cost reduction measure, of course, would be to insure everyone under the same plan (and convince Red Staters to stop shoveling burgers and 5-lb sundaes into their oversized gullets).
ReplyDeleteCutting NASA's manned space budget was a dick move. The majority of American's wouldn't know that NASA's budget is barely 1% of the federal budget and would assume that it was much more because of the amazing things NASA has accomplished.
ReplyDeleteSo naturally, Obama's PR campaign decided it would look like the President was doing great things by cutting NASA, when realistically he probably cut about as much as the US military spends in a single day to support operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the numerous military bases around the world.
NASA has always been a symbol for America's ingenuity and innovation. It has inspired generations of young kids to get into Mathematics and Science and aspire to be engineers and astronauts.
Obama talks about the US's need to produce more scientists and engineers, but his actions speak otherwise. This move is just another addition to the long list of policies indicating that Obama is mostly talk and little action...at least thats what I think.