Source: The Huffington Post
Share Comments 22 “Words, words, words” – that’s what the cartoon character Butthead used to mumble when adults were speaking to him, and it all sounded like one big blur. It leapt to mind again, when I was trying to grasp what President Obama was saying about the big, new plan for NASA, and why it was such a gosh, darn great idea. I know he means well, but it sounded like just so many words, words, words.
And why? Because the proposed annual budget for NASA is only $19 billion … and do you know what we spend in Iraq every single day? $7 billion.
That’s right. Three days from now, we will have spent on Iraq the entirety of next year’s budget for NASA, and then some. Obama’s proposal to increase the budget of NASA by $6 billion over the next five years, really says that in half-a-decade, NASA will receive one more day in Iraq. (Yes, try to contain your enthusiasm.)
Come to think of it, maybe that should be the new monetary unit in Congress. “I’ll vote three-weeks-in-Iraq for the great state of Alabama, if you vote for two-days-in-Iraq for my pet project.”
Before this editorial turns from words, words, words into numbers, numbers, numbers – it’s the numbers that tell the tale on what is and is not commitment from the US government. And despite the rhetoric, this new NASA plan is basically no commitment at all.
Plenty of observers have already noticed that the Obama plan abandons the return to the moon and ostensibly redirecting funds to science and the goal of Mars. To do this, the big plan is “investing in ground-breaking research and innovative companies” … OK, let’s go back to Business 101 and The Role of Governments 102.
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