"Brian Thorn" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 09:12:47 -0600, Richard Schumacher
wrote:

So you're saying "screw the deficit and civil rights, as long as we can
give
NASA way too much money trying to go back to the Moon". Thanks for
sharing.

Civil Rights = Do nothing while 20 terrorists come to America, board
airliners and kill 3,000 people. Thanks for sharing.

With Kerry as President the private sector will take us into space, which
is as
it should be.

Most forecasts say the Republicans will maintain control (perhaps even
increase their majority) of Congress in November. So even if Kerry
wins, he won't get much done. Left to his own devices, he'll likely
try to tax the private sector out of existence to pay down the
deficit. Yeah, that's a prescription for an improved economy,
alright...

As Greenspan pointed out, now that we have massive deficits, Social Security
will bankrupt the government. If that happens, there won't be a space
program at all. In 2001, we had a choice between running deficits now or
running them later. We chose to run them now which causes a bit of a
problem when Social Security runs out of money. Bush's Mars program takes
place after the government goes bankrupt.

Most of Bush's plans take place after he leaves office, so in a way, it
doesn't matter that much who gets elected. There is still a chance of
changing Kerry's mind after he has taken office and spoken to people at
NASA. At the moment, he is busy and isn't likely to propose much of a space
program. Under Bush's plan, the shuttle shuts down in 2010. Kerry's plan
is probably the same, unless it shuts down sooner, which wouldn't be a bad
thing. We'll have to wait and see what comes next.