[ArrogantBustard]

The problem is not so much that the NASA budget is a grotesque burden on the taxpayer, but that the porkbarreling, politics, and bureaucracy are bad for space exploration. NASA gets in its own way, and everybody else's as well. The problems were less bad during the "space race", but incipient even then. The evolutionary approach to space building on the USAF "X" plane program was completely abandoned in the interest of getting to the moon quickly. When the Apollo program ended, NASA's bureaucracy exploded, and NASA ceased to be productive.

[Shryke]

I mostly agree. NASA apparently could use a shake-down concerning its managers. I find that that sort of thing works best when it occurs at the top-level first. Gearge Bush is a good leader, and I believe that will flow downwards.