Posted on 01/27/2012 1:26:56 PM PST by Krankor
Newt Gingrichs moon base idea takes center stage at the GOP debate in Florida
If aliens were watching from outer space, even they might have been shocked by the amount of time devoted to space travel in Thursdays presidential debate.
Newt Gingrich excited Floridas struggling space coast this week when he pledged to industry executives that he would colonize the moon by the end of his second presidential term. The big promise drew flak from his GOP rivals, and a question at the debate from a Twitter user who wanted to know how the former speaker planned to pay for a lunar state. Continue Reading
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Moon industrialists interested in the idea
I love it! We’ve got to get rid of the Obama idea that the US is finished, it’s all over, and now the Third World will ride in and take over. We’ll just quietly collapse and fade away here in the US.
The moon project made me feel hopeful, for about the first time in I don’t know how long.
At least Gingrich believes in America and America’s “can do” attitude, unlike the present occupant in the White House.
Yeah, well Romney is great at big plans. He’s got a 159 step plan to...
Hitler: “Tomorrow, the World!”
Gingrich: “Tomorrow, the Moon!”
Man has this extraordinary gift...a desire to explore....that same gift that a tiny baby has crawling on its' belly trying to reach that red block!!!
I love the Speakers big ideas.
I must be missing something. If the point of spending loads of money is to "create jobs", why not just hire those ten million people to dig holes and fill them back up again? Is there a point to the goal? Or is it the same as all the millions of dollars Obama spent creating jobs in solar power and electric vehicles?
The mission to land men on the moon in the 60's made sense. We needed to spend the money developing the technical ability to spy on the Soviets from space and to rain nuclear warheads down on their heads, without coming out and saying that that was what we were doing.
Unless there is some tangible point to Newt's moonbase project, it doesn't make any more sense to me than any spendthrift racking up gobs of debt on his credit cards buying pointless stuff just for the thrill of spending. I guess the one difference is that, like with all government projects, they get to have fun spending other people's money instead of their own.
Newt: NASA=To the Moon and beyond!
(And a fringe benefit is that a moon colony can house a lot of Ron Paul supporters.)
"Public funds" = my money. He can't have it - let him build a moon base with his own money.
I’m told that the debate, I didn’t watch, made Newt look like Ron Paul when talked about going to space. Romney said, “If a manager of one of my companies suggested that we should invest in a lunar colony, I’d fire him!!!”
How is that line playing in Florida, Folks, because you Newt will be the new Speaker Moombeam on Leno and Letterman tonight.
I think NEWT MUST seize on this. I heard him talk at length at Cocoa, FL and it brought tears to my eyes.
NEWT must give this message clear and confident that Space is an American venture.
GO NEWT!!!!
Real Americans thrived on pioneer spirit. People have flocked to frontiers throughout history. We have been nanny stated and without frontiers for too long.
When the going gets rough, the rough go somewhere easier. Exploiting lunar resources and a climate of pro business there would breath new life into our economy.
Make incentives for private sector investment and we could be booming again. I for one would envy the chance to go there.
I’d rather Newt said we would end cancer as a better use of our money but he might be saving that for a State that does a lot of medical research.
Real Americans keep their hands out of each other's pockets.
They did it with their own profit motive in mind. They expanded westward and settled the country for their own personal benefit. Fur trapping, farming, ranching, the lumber industry, mining, etc, etc.
If it's worthwhile, the government doesn't have to provide "incentives". The government just need to keep the heck out of the way. And part of keeping out of the way means not confiscating money that people might have a better use for, just to waste it it on frivolous ventures with no point other some politician's vanity.
The moon is full of minerals, helium and many other vital things that we need and can use. Anybody who gets up there is going to be making a fortune, and it’s also going to be the stepping stone to the other planets in our solar system, some of which probably also have exploitable resources.
Will some people go bust on it? Of course. They did in the opening of the West, too. But that was what put us over the top, and opening the moon to commerce and development might be the thing that puts us over the top in this century. And, like everything from the Gold Rush to the railroads, it will be private...with the government doing its sole job, which is to provide security, encouragement and the stable environment in which things can happen.
He wants to build it with private money, and reduce the Federal NASA spending (especially now that Obama has assigned “Muslim outreach” as NASA’s main mission).
The tangible point to Newt’s proposal is that this Nation has too many people sitting around doing nothing. NO JOBS.
The Chief Executive sets the vision and strategy and surrounds himself with smart people that will execute that vision.
Imagine the entire USA focused on having a base on the moon by 2020.
Wonder what the expected benefit was to those Polynesian Islanders who struck out into the Pacific in wooden sail boats just to figure out how come the waves looked different at different times of the year???
What is the single NATIONAL PROJECT we have today that our young men and women look to aspire to work on? Infrastructure Building?
G
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