On Feb 10, 3:33*pm, Brian Tung wrote:
wsnell wrote:
Conservatives don't run up bills...that's why we are called
conservatives. *We don't lie either.

Well, see, the problem is, if you *do* lie, I can't trust your
assertion that you *don't* lie.

(Come on, really? *You don't have to rise to the bait with
yet one more "I, as a member of incredibly broad group X,
never do bad thing Y.")

True conservatives have no reason to lie, but unfortunately you among
so many others have been misled as to what conservatism really is in
America. We vote for Republicans as the lesser of two evils, in an
attempt keep the worst of the collectivists at bay.

The government, as a whole, runs up bills. *It also lies. *(It
doesn't *always* lie, mind you; it also tells the truth
sometimes. *More's the pity--things would be a lot simpler
if it always lied.) *No different from people in general that
way. *What we do as voters is decide which group of
people tell lies and run up bills in less damaging fashion,
according to our lights.

So long as the typical voter gets something out of the deal, he
doesn't seem to care about the deficits. Conservatives approach
governance and spending differently, ie they want less of it.

In my opinion, the real tragedy is that science funding is
so moribund that a strategic error such as the ISS (on the
whole--of course it has had some benefits) can wipe out
so many exciting plans. *

Government waste in other areas dwarfs any supposed waste on the ISS.
Consider the $53 billion for high speed passenger rail. That's
probably $300 or more out of each taxpayer's pocket and they would
still have to buy tickets to ride the thing, assuming that it even
went someplace they wanted to go. With that amount of cash I can buy
enough gasoline to drive myself and at least two friends thousands of
miles. On our schedule.

Let's either spend that $53 billion on space and science, or not spend
it at all.