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Weather Satellites Lose Funding
ianare writes "Federal budget cuts are threatening to leave the US without some critical satellites, and that could mean less accurate warnings about events like tornadoes and blizzards. In particular, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are concerned about satellites that orbit over the earth's poles rather than remaining over a fixed spot along the equator. These satellites are 'the backbone' of any forecast beyond a couple of days, says Kathryn Sullivan, assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction, and NOAA's deputy administrator. It was data from polar satellites that alerted forecasters to the risk of tornadoes in Alabama and Mississippi back in April, Sullivan says. 'With the polar satellites currently in place we were able to give those communities five days' heads up,' she says."
>>Here in the US we're paying less taxes than we have in the past 60 years.
Wrong. Don't confuse the maximum marginal tax rate (which used to go up to 91%) with the actual amount of taxes paid per dollar of GDP. Hauser found (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauser%27s_Law) that no matter what the tax rates are set to, we pay around 20% of our GDP in taxes. If you're talking about the recent dip due to the recession, you might be able to make an argument there, but the long term trend is actually pretty clear:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/U.S._Federal_Tax_Receipts_as_a_Percentage_of_GDP_1945%E2%80%932015.jpg
The federal government takes in plenty of money from taxes. The problem is that they spend too much. I suggest even, across the board, cuts to balance the budget. No partisanship, just chop the budget by whatever percentage excess they had the year before.