Bush made his long awaited visionary Moon/Mars speech today. The AP science writer figured it was a good time to show his knowledge that Presidents are term-limited, as though maybe no President should propose anything that can't be finally finished, like a sitcom conflict, in the very near short term. Here's what "journalist" and civics buff Paul Recer had to say:
Bush said early financing would total $12 billion for exploration over the next five years, only $1 billion of it in new funds. That meant that even if he wins a second term in office, his successors in the Oval Office would be responsible for finding the rest of the money for a program likely to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.You don't say!
Coincidentally, the AP ran a poll yesterday that asked "Do you support President Bush's highly expensive proposal to send Americans on a dangerous mission to the Moon and to Mars the same year that seven Columbia astronauts got killed in a space mission, or should the money be spent to by you a shiny new car and some free 'scripts from CVS?" Of course, the folks weren't too keen on space exploration and scientific discovery when it might mean that they'd have to pay for grandpa's Lipitor out of their own pocketses.
But that shouldn't be a surprise, most of the short-sighted, self-indulgent prefer a raise in next week's paycheck to a little long-term research and development. And surely a little bling bling today is preferable to, say, college. We should take that $400 billion for free prescription drugs and plow it all into NASA, giving due funding to the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project and to the Mars goal. If grandma needs drugs, her kids should be writing her a check rather than buying the third season of Sex and the City.
Don't agree? Check out what the lefty over at Stinging Nettle has to say.
