This is just another phase of his program to trash the US, which has been his objective since day one.
The space program was emblematic of the US, one of those things that expressed us. Bambi sure couldn’t let that continue!
As for the spending, a lot of it is actually money that is being given or loaned (with little expectation of repayment) to Third World or non-European countries to improve their technology, their energy supplies, etc. at the cost of our own.
We can’t find the money for our own programs, but we’re giving Brazil 2 billion dollars for petroleum exploration and drilling. Oh, and of course, don’t forget that Obama redefined NASA’s mission as “outreach to the Islamic world.”
“What did the astronomers expect? Did they really believe that the US Government would demolish the human spaceflight program and leave their precious “science” programs untouched?”
I don’t know about astronomers specifically, but scientists in academic institutions tend to vote overwhelmingly democrat and are on board the liberal academic train. What they didn’t expect was that when you institute liberal policy and destroy the capitalist basis of our prosperity, there is no money left to give them grants.
Cutting-to-the-chase bump.
In Texas, we smelled him coming two years ago and more. He has worked hard to bring down the Texas economy every which way he can, but he fully intends to screw the whole country.