Clinton & NASA's Fall: Is Bill Clinton responsible for the Columbia disaster?

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | February 3, 2003 | Lowell Ponte

[alisasny]

This blaming Clinton for everything is getting old and taking on a new meaning in a comical sense hence missing the very serious misdeeds of Clinton.

This is another reason why the left still gets away with their "ITS OLD NEWS" garbage.

Frankly it is not helping our cause at all IMHO!

[Galtoid]

Sorry, but you can't lay the blame on Clinton for this one. Bush has been president for over two years. The underfunding of NASA also occurred on his watch, which doesn't make either man guilty. It is just that our government is so bloated, so complex, and so overreaching that we simply have lost the ability to decide where the money should go to protect fellow citizens.

[Types_with_Fist]

It's for certain that Clinton did much damage. But, I sure hope we're not going to run against his administration in '04.

[TheExploited]

Clinton is responsible for many things (treason, multiple homicides, rape, perjury, bribery, the unabated growth of Al Queda, etc.), but this incident is not one where he should be held responsible.

[Karsus]

What about the GOPers in congress who didn't restore funding to NASA?

[alrea]

Russia, with its eagerness to sell private tourist tickets to the Space Station, has been more capitalistic than has America

capitalism is the only economic system on earth. the difference is in the various ways of dividing up the ownership/property.

[alisasny]

You get it. The FAR right constantly blames him for everything and he can literally turn around say that about something not so serious and say the KOOKS blamed me for that as well. By doing this over every single bad event we are pretty much planting the sead that he is INNOCENT of everything. He literally turns everying thing into the VRWC and we lose crediblity on everything. Its a very vicious cycle.

[BushCountry]

FACT: The RATS in general hate the space program. Social programs are their only concern.

FACT: NASA was greatly diminished under Clinton's watch.

FACT: Clinton may not deserved all of the blame, but none of it?

FACT: GWB has been a little busy. 9/11 happened within 8 months of his presidency. I think he had big plans for the space agency before he got sidetracked.

[ContemptofCourt]

I'm looking forward to the thread titled "WWII: Its all Clinton's fault!"

Seriously, in the late 80's and early 90's, NASA needed something to justify its existence, and came up with the current ISS plan -- this also justified the Shuttle's existence. Both are married to each other....becuase the Shuttle is an outdated piece of machinery.

If the agency were forward thinking, it would be looking into getting to Mars or beyond, not blowing money on the ISS and the shuttle....

[BIGZ]

Any Freeper have the actual budget numbers 90 thru present?

[KC_Conspirator]

Sorry, but you can't blame ze Klinton for this and I have been excoriating people blaming Bush. Flying at 11,000 mph is a very dangerous thing, you know.

[MamaLucci]

The damage the Clintons did to our country during their 8 year reign
of corruption may never be completely repaired.
I will never forgive, OR forget.

The Clintons also targeted NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for massive budget cuts. They left our space program so damaged that American companies turned instead to Communist China to launch their satellites – and in the process apparently transferred vast amounts of classified rocket technology know-how to China’s ruling Red Army.

In the Clintons’ and Vice President Al Gore’s eagerness to cut America’s muscle at NASA so that taxpayer money could be redistributed to buy Democratic votes, the shuttle program plummeted from 3,000 federal workers in 1995 to only 1,800 in early 2000, when NASA’s hemorrhage was put on hold lest it become an election issue against Gore and the Democratic Party.

[KevinDavis]

As much I hate Clinton, this is the wrong thing to pin him on. In fact it is getting imho and it hurts our cause.

[KevinDavis]

I think in 84 Reagan proposed a space station. Much grander than the one that is being built.

[ContemptofCourt]

There is a great book called "Dragonfly" about the shuttle program, MIR, and the ISS....apparently, the current ISS was presented to congress and Bush I (I believe) to support funding for NASA....the original version of the space station was something much more grand (but its costs ballooned to an unfathomable figure).

[retiredtexan]

I am Clintoon hater from the first time I heard his name and saw his smirking face, but this thread and others like it are ridicolous.Even if you pin anything on him, it would not affect him, for he no remorse for any of his actions.He is amoral.

[spetznaz]

This blaming Clinton for everything is getting old and taking on a new meaning in a comical sense hence missing the very serious misdeeds of Clinton.

True true! Clinton may have done a number of things that were not right for the nation ...however blaming him for everything that goes wrong is a stretch.

[MamaLucci]

Is clinton responsible for this horrible tragedy? Of course not.
Did his 8 years in office irreparably harm the infrastructure
of America (including the space program)? Absolutely.

[Atlas Sneezed]

"I think in 84 Reagan proposed a space station. Much grander than the one that is being built."

He also proposed putting a man on Mars. If it happened, he'd get credit (like JFK did,) and if it didn't no one (but me) would remember.