(ed kyle) wrote in
om:

What will President Kerry do with NASA? My guess is that
he will want to dump the Bush Moon/Mars plans ASAP, but
will he be able to stop CEV and the end of Shuttle?

- Ed Kyle


Kerry probably won't do very much in a direct manner about NASA -- for
one thing, support for manned spaceflight among liberal Democrats has
historically been pretty low (personified by Mondale), and Kerry himself
doesn't have much of a history of getting things done in the Senate.

The indirect effects of a Kerry election will be much more significant.
First of all, he'll be running on an agenda of increased taxes that will
run a high risk of stalling the economic recovery in the U.S. A slowed
economy led by a President whose consituency will insist on spending the
budget on domestic issues (expect national health care initiatives and
similar programs) will simply not have the discretion to spend "extra" or
"optional" money on new initiatives. Furthermore, the fact that the
initiatves were originally proposed by the "loathsome" G.W. Bush will act
as a further damper.

Secondly, the defeat of G.W. Bush will be viewed in the rest of the world
as a repudiation of the war on terror. Whether or not this is true, it
can't help but encourage new efforts to force the U.S. out of the Middle
East. Kerry's views of international terrorism as a law enforcement
issue, rather than a national security one, practically guarantee a
return to the previous policies for dealing with terrorists. I'd predict
a resurgance in large-scale terrorism against domestic & foreign U.S.
targets within a year of the election -- with the resulting economic
damage further reducing the money available for "optional" projects like
the CEV (or a Kerry equivalent).

--
Reed