Obama Appointed Panel Says NASA Underfunded; Can't Accomplish Goals.

Friday’s Miami Herald carries a story that a panel reviewing NASA's current plans for human space flight reports that there is no realistic way to return to the moon by 2020 -- or even 2028. This is the conclusion by The Human Space Flight Plans Committee, appointed by President Barack Obama. The committee has searched for a way to put together a realistic plan for America’s goal to place men back on the moon. Under current budgeting for NASA, former President Bush’s proposed goal of returning men the moon by 2020 is seen as unrealistic and may not be possible until well after 2030. NASA’s annual budget is 9 billion a year. The panel reports that meeting the goal of a renewed presence on the moon will not be possible unless a $50 billion gap in NASA’s budget can be resolved.

President Obama ran for election with promises of stimulating the economy to build jobs in the United States with the hopes of pulling this nation out of its current financial crisis. Not investing more money in NASA and its efforts to place men on the moon and beyond will not allow the type of innovation and development that could really stimulate the economy to take root. The scientific breakthroughs and technology that could be spawned by a renewed push into space exploration could mean more stimulation for the economy as new consumer goods derived from technological innovation for the space program begin to enter the marketplace.

Our government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to bailout banks and the auto industry for their mismanagement and failures. Acorn, a favorite “non-profit” organization of President Obama’s will receive over 8.5 billion in tax payer’s dollars this year; an amount which is just shy of NASA’s annual budget.

With all the money Capitol Hill and the President are throwing around in corporate welfare and in paying back political favors, or in just ensuring more bought votes in exchange for a few “free” taxpayer dollars, the vision has been lost for truthfully stimulating the economy. The money the President and our representatives are so freely spending belongs to the taxpayer. So, why not throw a little money NASA’s way, which in turn would stimulate the economy and do us all some good?

If our government was to fund NASA with a budget adequate enough to quickly establish a full-time presence on the moon and for missions beyond; imagine what the potential could be for new innovations that could be developed while supporting a more robust space program? Imagine the positive economic effects as new innovations cross over to the private sector? There would be a substantial infusion of new jobs, manufacturing and new industries created for the next generation to take advantage of. Why wouldn’t Washington want to increase funding for NASA?

Past experience has shown that investment in a robust space program brings new industry and economic growth. Of course, the reality is that our lawmakers and our president are determined to shower special interests and community organizing groups with stimulus funds to secure their own political future over the future of, and the economic well being of the American taxpayer, who’s on the hook for all of Washington’s pet projects and boondoggles.

It’s becoming quite apparent that President Obama and Capitol Hill have no interest in stimulating the economy to benefit the American people when refusing to invest in true science and exploration by investing in NASA. Perhaps President Obama and Capitol Hill fear that investing in NASA and the building of a robust space program would cause trickle-down economics, an economic concept that truly works. The only economy our politicians are interested in is more of a trickle-up poverty kind of economy. Perhaps our political leaders are only motivated to benefit their own power base and personal economies by filling their own bank accounts and those of their cronies and special interest groups with stolen taxpayer funds. Meanwhile, they see a poor and inpoverished underclass as a citizenry dependent on the federal government, which ensures their grip on power.

Perhaps it is time we demand that our tax money be used to invest on our future as a nation, rather than the future of the elites in Washington D.C.. As a nation, we need to demand that NASA gets stimulated with some generous funding as a means to further fix our economy.