Steyn must have been under pressure to fill space before a deadline because he’s smart enough to realize that Newt is talking about reducing, not increasing, the role of government in the space program, and in using incentives, prizes, etc (which have little if any impact on the debt) to encourage private investment.
All you have to do is look at the 1960s and all the spin-offs ranging from teflon to solar cells to personal computers to realize the leverage this had on the national economy.
Private. Not Public.
Are you kidding? Teflon:
It is commonly believed that Teflon, like velcro, is a spin-off product from the NASA space projects. However, that is not so, even though both products have been used by NASA. (A href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene>Source)Don't like Wikipedia? Try:
Tang, Teflon, and Velcro, are not spinoffs of the Space Program. General Foods developed Tang in 1957, and it has been on supermarket shelves since 1959. In 1962, when astronaut John Glenn performed eating experiments in orbit, Tang was selected for the menu, launching the powdered drink’s heightened public awareness. NASA also raised the celebrity status of Teflon, a material invented for DuPont in 1938, when the Agency applied it to heat shields, space suits, and cargo hold liners. Velcro was used during the Apollo missions to anchor equipment for astronauts’ convenience in zero gravity situations. Although it is a Swiss invention from the 1940s, it has since been associated with the Space Program. (Source)Solar cells were first developed in 1954 by Bell Labs. They have been used in the space program since before NASA exisited. But saying they are a spin-off from the space program is a bit like saying that airplanes are a spin-off from NASA because NASA uses airplanes too. There is a NASA web page that explains how solar cells work. Their claim there is that: "Through the space programs, the [solar cell] technology advanced."
As for personal computers, the claim that NASA had anything to do with them is a bit like suggesting that they developed electricity. Intel developed the first microprocessor (4004) , and that development had nothing to do with the space program. It was developed for a small electronic calculators. The first microprocessor I programmed was an Intel 8080. At that time the company I was working for also had some project going on for the Shuttle program. That project used a minicomputer. Intel kept improving their micros and none of those improvements had anything to do with government contracts so far as I know. IBM developed the PC using an Intel 8088 for the hobbyist market. It was a sort of afterthought for them then. If you look at the Wiki page for Personal Computers, you will see that NASA isn't even mentioned.
ML/NJ