Democratic Social Agendas or NASA?

About six months ago, I predicted in this blog that the nation's healthcare debate, focused on government funding of healthcare, would have other unforseen effects -- meaning, a validation of the "law of unintended consequences." We are seeing some of these happen right in front of our eyes.

My concern centered around the fact that once the Federal Government made healthcare an entitlement, it would take top priority versus most other discretionary budget items. Defense, of course, would probably be exempted. But NASA would not.

The President's budget reflected exactly this concern. NASA's budget was slated to increase slightly but missing was continued funding for the Constellation program for manned spaceflight including future Moon and Marsn missions. It needed only several billion per year, but what with $800 billion for Congressional pork (otherwise known as "the stimulus") and $1 trillion over 10 years slated for healthcare, the squeeze would have to come from somewhere. And the social welfare budgeteers in the White House lined out Constellation.

Well, the Congress and the NASA constituencies are fighting back. Recent press releases announce that the President's "NASA Plan Falls Flat in Congress" (Aviation Week); one commentator expressed astonishment at the Administration's "faith-based belief" that the commerical marketplace would solve the problem of manned space flight. [I commented recently on this possibility, but only wistfully; not once have I believed that space would ever be economical as a marketplace.]

Bravo to the Congress and to the industry for standing up to the Administration. Nothing makes America stand taller in the eyes of the world than when we achieve another tremendous milestone in space.

Consider the past extraordinary accomplishments of our nation: first man on the Moon, the Space Shuttle, GPS satellites, the Hubble Space Telescope, and more. Then consider the space accomplishments of defense and intelligence, courtesy of the DOD, the NRO and other agencies -- you might not know of them except in the tell-all books published in the past, but they are extraordinary, and they contributed mightily to our nation's defense and our technology.

Do we really want to give up this leadership, or relinquish it to the Chinese?

I thought not.