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State of Alabama Fighting NASA's New Plan
FleaPlus writes "Alabama politicians have formed a 'task force' dedicated to fighting NASA's new plans to cancel the costly Constellation/Ares program, which is largely based in Alabama. The chronically mismanaged Constellation project attempted to build new rockets in-house and replicate an Apollo-style lunar program with minimal investment in new technologies. NASA's new boosted budget revives formerly suppressed R&D efforts into critical technologies needed for a sustainable push towards Mars and intermediate waypoint destinations, works with (instead of trying to compete with) existing commercial rockets to transport cargo/crew to orbit, and funds a stream of robotic precursor missions to scout other worlds and demonstrate new technologies. The Alabama task force fighting the new plan includes former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and former Ares project manager Steve Cook."
Who modded this insightful? You are saying that the inability to borrow money is the enemy of small business? Our federal government, for the past several administrations, has borrowed money with utter recklessness and saddled every citizen in the United States with tens of thousands of dollars of federal debt for the next three or four generations. This is not limited to the US, either, as the EU is facing the very real possibility that three or four member states may collapse under their debt load in 2010. The real blame belongs on a federal government that couldn't budget its way out of a pile of leaves and because horrible regulatory policies make lenders so uncertain about the future that they WON'T lend money. Every government program is "well intentioned", but well intentioned does not mean necessary. Pork is used to obfuscate a lack of budgetary discipline with shiny objects. And ultimately the blame falls on us...we keep re-electing the same ignorant representatives and senators back into office to perpetuate pork and keep us firmly in the center lane on the road to ruin.