White House Calling For NASA Funding Cuts

The White House's proposed allocation for NASA in fiscal 2013 represents less than 0.5 percent of the overall federal budget request, which is $3.8 trillion.

I'm speechless.

The government requires almost 4 trillion a year to operate? REALLY???!!!

No, the government does NOT require nearly $4 trillion to operate. It only requires about a third of that to operate.

The vast majority of that $4 Trillion is on 'entitlements' that transfer wealth from the workers who pay taxes to people who don't pay taxes (or is borrowed against future revenue; well you know how that goes). Here's a pie chart graph that shows how much of the federal budget goes to run the basic services of the federal government and how much goes to 'entitlements'.

Taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvLZ-M_HS-w&feature=player_embedded#!

It's just sick.

And we are supposed to believe that the only real problem is that the rich aren't paying enough.

Time to move over and let someone else assume leadership in space.

Why?

That's like asking the fastest guy in a 100 yard dash to slow down so that the looser gets to win.

I left off the sarcasm emoticon (whichever one that is).

Why indeed! I remember the pride I felt when we were walking on the moon. I expected that by now we would be on Mars.

It's been down hill since then and the smart team of engineers that made it happen were scattered to the winds.

"I left off the sarcasm emoticon (whichever one that is)."

Ah, that would be the one in white, no? :)

NASA has seriously dropped the ball. They conduct themselves as hamstrung bureaucrats, rather than the daring explorers they should be.

I KNOW their budget was cut YEARS ago. I KNOW they've been operating on a tenth of what they asked for. I KNOW they can't afford a single mistake without being completely disbanded. But, there is no hope for a space program that does not continue to move the ball.

Where has been their "next great leap?" If they were inspiring the nation, they wouldn't have a budget problem. NASA is dying of a lack of vision.

-A-

The vision comes from the top, but that changes every 2, 4, or 8 years.

Well DUH!

barack hussein obama says, "There are votes to buy by spending more money on entitlement social programs. We can't be spending that money foolishly on science and exploration. I won't get four more years of lavish living on someone else's dime unless I can hoodwink a lot more people into thinking I care about them. I need to distract them from how bad their situation really is, so I need that money."

One good thing that can come out of difficult financial times for an organization is that we are then forced to make decisions about what is really important and clean out "dead wood", bad programs, etc. that can tend to accumulate when times are good. Research is critical for the future and needs to continue.

Seeing his new 2013 budget proposal tells me this guy hasn't learned a thing in his past almost four years about fiscal responsibility, where the money comes from, priorities of how the limited amount of money is spent, for the good of the country.

It's a small step for a man.....