Going to Mars but losing my vote

Modesto Bee ^ | 1.24.04 | Greedy Geezer

[ambrose]

It's more than a little bit upsetting to hear supposedly responsible people, including President Bush, talk about expanding the presence of humans into space. Space projects cost huge sums of money, and money is the real subject of this letter.

[ambrose]

ping.

[Huck]

Both Howard Dean and John Edwards are looking better and better

He lost me here. Joe Lieberman is the only Democrat running who is even worth a thought.

[CasearianDaoist]

The same old same old. Get a new generation going on this challenge. and we won't need SSI. So short sighted. You would think that boomers would want to leave something behind for the next generation.

[ambrose]

Just another of the sheep who cares more about cheap pills than doing something great and leaving a legacy for future generations. Sickening.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

It's never about the betterment of the human race. It's always me, me, me.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Actually, the President's space policy is rather lacking in boldness and did not call for much new money. The best thing he did, phasing out the shuttle by 2010, was a cutback.

This letter illustrates that there are a lot of swing voters out there. Ann Coulter says they are dumber than a toaster, but I guess some of them are capable of writing a letter.

[Cold Heat]

Damn!

A 5% increase in a NASA budget that is terribly underfunded sure get's a lot of negative press.

[marron]

Its called "blowing the lid off the mason jar" (tip of the hat to Marshall T. Savage).

[DMCA]

And yet your forget about the Great bill we are leaving our kids and grandkids. Debt service currently takes 15-20% of the entire budget and growing the goverment isn't helping. Do we really wish to stick our kids with a debt that take 35-45% of the yearly budget to service?

Do we need to go to space? Yes we do.
Do we need to grow goverment? No we don't.
Why isn't goverment getting smaller? We control both houses and the white house.

[ambrose]

All businesses incur debt. Debt is fine when it is down payment or investment for the future. Space exploration is an investment for a future generations.

Cheap pills for geezers is not an investment. It is money down the rathole.

[wattsup]

Going to Mars is only the culmination of what President Bush wants to do. It's the exploration of science that causes great innovations and new ideas. Look back at what President Kennedy caused when we went to the moon and all of the new inventions that great step created. This is what President Bush wants. The creative mind pushed to its limits.

[marron]

Poverty is always going to be with us because poverty is relative. And poverty owes as much to individual character as it does to any broader societal anomaly.

As long as people are people, in other words, you will have poor people. This doesn't mean you don't provide a safety net, its that the safety net catches you on the way down but then you have to climb back up.

Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, even small ones, the growth in technology re-defines the baseline of what we consider poverty. In some countries poverty means you build your own house out of materials you scavenge yourself. In the US, poverty means you have a color TV, a $5 dollar Casio watch better than anything John D. Rockefeller could have bought, and medical help better than Queen Victoria or FDR could have dreamed of, once you wait your turn in the line for the gunshot victims to go first. Being poor in America means you have to go to the library to go on-line with the other homeless people surfing the net.

[drypowder]

Social Security system is supposed to be going broke

Hell, Bush wants to send SS $ to Mexico! There are numerous proposals Bush has made that, in general and in my view, hurt this country and I too am on the fence re my support for his reelection. I will never vote for a Democrat but the person who touts unwavering support for the Constitution is my kinda politician.

[Dog Anchor]

The key here is to integrate the Moon/ Mars initiative with the immigration policy...

[DMCA]

If you read my post you will see that I agree. I just think the total size of the goverment should shrink AND we should go to space. As a matter of fact I think we should do more in regards to space like offer a 500,000,000 Million reward to the first company that can cut by 90% the cost per pound to LEO.

[raybbr]

[Muleteam1]

>>Cheap pills for geezers is not an investment. It is money down the rathole.<<

As one who is fast approaching the "old geezer" stage of life, I have to totally agree with your economic assessment. Pills may add some quality to the end of an individual's life, but one must doubt if that quality of life is worth saving if by saving it hope is decreased for future generations.

Muleteam1

[Brett66]

Basically, he wants the government to spend money only where he thinks it should. No thanks, Bush is only giving a push to NASA and not spending that much more money. NASA's budget is chump change compared to the overall budget. Maybe if he would just forgoe his free pills program for a year, the deficit really would be affected, but getting rid of NASA is a drop in the bucket.

[breakem]

With the exploration of space we open up the possibility of inventions, discoveries (example: minerals) that may pay for the national debt in a short period of time. We can do this or we can let the Europeans, Japanese, or Chinese do it.