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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."
Hey, this topic reminds me of a joke I came up with the other day:
Q: Why do white trash prefer to use MySpace instead of Facebook? :)
A: Because Facebook has the word 'book' in it!
"Not unfair?" Answer me this honest question: why should an employer pay a tax on employees? I mean fundamentally.
These taxes on small businesses ARE unfair, because they dramatically raise the bar for starting or operating a small business.
You might argue that even if that tax were placed square on the employee, then businesses would have to raise their wages so that employees could afford to pay. And that's valid. But at least then it wouldn't be a half-hidden cost. It would be direct, and people would have a much better idea of where the money is coming from, and where it is going. Which is ALWAYS better.
I do not disagree with you about "healthcare", by which you really mean insurance (they aren't the same things, despite what you hear out of Washington). That is something else that needs to be taken out of the hands of employers. Part of the whole health care problem we have today is that businesses get a break when they have an insurance program for their employees... but because the costs have been driven up so much, individuals and startups that aren't getting the breaks that larger businesses do cannot afford it.