Obama's 2016 NASA Budget Status Quo, Funds Europa Mission

MarkWhittington writes The Washington Post reported that the NASA portion of the president's 2016 budget proposal is basically status quo though it does provide further funding for a mission to Europa. A Europa probe is near and dear to the new chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA, Rep. John Culberson. However, the $18.5 billion budget proposal also funds the asteroid redirect mission, which has come under increasing fire from both Congress and the scientific community. The Houston Chronicle suggested that the final spending bill will be considerably different once congressional Republicans get through with it.

Comments

The news is Obama submitted a budget

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the first time a Democrat has submitted a budget for at least a decade.

Neither Harry Reid's Senate, Nancy Pelosi's House, nor Obama before this has EVER submitted an actual budget.

Where the hell have they been the past 6 years - when they had much more power than they have now?

And it you think I'm shitting you, please cite the last Democrat-submitted budget.

Re:The news is Obama submitted a budget

[Anonymous Coward]

And it you think I'm shitting you, please cite the last Democrat-submitted budget.

You mean like last year?

You can even read the budget and scroll and see the numbers and changes on that page. I'm pretty sure he did so for years prior to 2014 as well.

Obama has had budgets; the Republicans (and truthfully congress as a whole) have argued that budget, fillibustered it, not allowed it to pass, and have been surviving on continuing resolutions for years. But that isn't Obama's fault that our congressmen can't behave like adults and compromise.

Re:The news is Obama submitted a budget

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, lets not forget that it is the job of congress to set the budget. The president gets to submit a wishlist, but it is up to congress to specify what goes in or not. Then, after they pass a budget, it is the president's duty to approve it unless there is something terribly wrong with it. Congress cannot shutdown the government if they pass a balanced budget, but the president can by not approving the one that was sent. So lets call the 2013 shutdown what it was, a democrat government shutdown.

Re:More tax dollars up in smoke.

[MightyMartian]

Private industry can barely get into orbit.

Creating a budget isn't the POTUS' job

[Anonymous Coward]

That function is assigned to Congress.

So why should I care what a lame duck president who lost control of both houses of Congress has to say on the matter? The only influence he could have right now it propose every idea the republicans want to push through and watch them try to figure out how to not support him. Everything he's for they are automatically opposed to so they'd be stuck. It might be entertaining to see a congress person repeating "does not compute" endlessly until their head explodes. Kind of a cross between Mudd from "Star Trek" and "Scanners".

Re:Creating a budget isn't the POTUS' job

[Anonymous Coward]

That function is assigned to Congress.

No, that's approving the budget.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_budget_process

The Budget itself, is requested by the President (who has the authority to submit needful legislation to Congress), under the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921.

So why should I care what a lame duck president who lost control of both houses of Congress has to say on the matter? The only influence he could have right now it propose every idea the republicans want to push through and watch them try to figure out how to not support him. Everything he's for they are automatically opposed to so they'd be stuck. It might be entertaining to see a congress person repeating "does not compute" endlessly until their head explodes. Kind of a cross between Mudd from "Star Trek" and "Scanners".

How did you figure out the President's SECRET PLAN? Damn you!

Re:More tax dollars up in smoke.

[Grishnakh]

You're an idiot. Who do you think built the rockets that got men to the Moon? Hint: it wasn't NASA or the government, it was a company called Rocketdyne.

Today's private spaceflight companies like Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are mostly doing the same thing: they're vying for government contracts for things like ISS resupply missions (in addition to commercial contracts for satellite launches; they didn't have commercial communications or other satellites back in the 60s).