Posted on 02/06/2003 3:07:53 AM PST by JohnHuang2
President George W. Bush proposed a $470 million increase in NASA's budget to $15.5 billion in the next fiscal year. That decision was made before the Columbia disaster. Expect an increase.
Has our investment in space been a good one for American taxpayers? You bet it has!
A study done in the early '90s found that every dollar invested in space yields $7 back in the form of corporate and personal income taxes from increased jobs and economic growth. Today that figure would be deemed conservative.
There are literally thousands of spin-offs that have found their way into the private sector that are a direct result of space exploration – products that have made us healthier, safer, more comfortable and, yes, richer.
The Space Foundation has created a "Hall of Fame" for the best of the best space product spin-offs. Among the inductees: cordless power tools, fire-resistant aircraft seats, advanced lubricants, scratch-resistant lenses, the heart defibrillator and DirecTV.
The bar-code tracking system is now used on virtually every product sold. The Global Position System is used for navigation, mapping and charting. Temper Foam appears in everything from wheelchairs and sports equipment to mattresses and cushions. The DeBakey blood pump currently is used as a temporary and permanent heart implant and radiant barriers are used in homes, buildings automobiles, boats and food wrappers.
Put all these things aside, the exploration of space can be justified for defense interests alone. Very simply, a nation that can control space can control the world. We have a choice: We can lead or be led.
We can and we must increase our investment in space and we can do that without running up a huge debt for our children and grandchildren. We could give NASA another billion dollars and cut another 10 billion from the deficit if Congress simply would eliminate all the pork-barrel projects identified by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the omnibus spending bill recently passed by the United States Senate to take us through the balance of the 2003 fiscal year.
There is plenty of waste in the federal budget that should be eliminated. However, pork is – by definition – items that are not requested or authorized. These are projects that could not pass the normal scrutiny of the budget process. They are items slipped in by appropriators as a favor to this member or that member. The list is 137-pages long and it is posted on his website.
In fact, we could recoup the extra billion for NASA from the $1.2 billion for "new starts" in earmarked transportation projects alone. We have an obligation to build and maintain the federal highway system, but it makes no sense to have the federal government solving the transportation problems of local communities. They offer lawmakers a chance to crow about how they were able to deliver all this "free money" to their districts or states. These lawmakers should not be patted on the back! They should be tarred and feathered by the voters back home.
By far, the most egregious pork-barrel project is the $15 million for the Yazoo Pump Project in central Mississippi that was a sop to former Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott. It involves building the largest hydraulic pumping plant to drain 200,000 acres of wetlands for the benefit of local farmers who want to grow soybeans and cotton.
There is no shortage of land suitable for soybeans or cotton and no shortage of these commodities that would justify spending the taxpayers money in this way. Furthermore, we already have spent $30,000 to preserve this area for water foul. Go figure!
Equally ridiculous is this trifecta for the state of Montana: 1 million dollars for the National Center for the Ecologically-based Noxious Weed Management at Montana State University, another million for a DNA bear-sampling study and $675,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute. Please!
There is $600,000 to treat waste on small swine farms in South Carolina, $650,000 for grasshopper and Mormon cricket activities in the State of Utah, $100,000 for the Alaska Sea Otter Commission in Alaska and $2.5 million to the Orangutan Foundation in Indonesia.
How about the $4,500,000 for an indoor firearms training range in Artesia, New Mexico, the $259,000 for the Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va. for the Center for the Exceptionally Gifted?
There is a compelling national interest to maintain our leadership in space utilization and exploration. However, there is no compelling national interest for these and the other $11 billion in pork-barrel projects.
The list of space accomplishments is inspirational, while the pork list is a national disgrace.
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