Obama’s Strategy: Reward Failure

[JBeukema]

After three weeks, most Americans still do not understand all of the behind-closed-door deals that had to be cut on the $965 Billion dollar bailout of Greece. It’s yet another complicated deal, with little transparency to let non-governmental folks understand the specifics.

But, I do understand the power of a dream that can inspire a new generation. And I know that Obama just killed that dream.
Obama’s decision to expand bailouts to include Greece coincided with a Senate hearing on another decision Obama made to cut funding for a government space travel program, killing the dream of a permanent station on the Moon or a landing on Mars.
As an unintended, but cruel, joke, Obama’s decision to retreat from space exploration has been pushed as an example of the President’s fiscal discipline. No doubt, Obama was hoping that such cuts would mask the fact that he has endorsed the greatest deficits spending in the history of the United States.
But, as with many of Obama’s posturings, fiscal discipline was a canard. Obama’s decision to cut NASA’s space travel wasn’t fiscally disciplined, it was just ill-informed.
Let’s take another look at these two decisions.

Obama’s Strategy: Reward Failure - Big Government

 

[Old Rocks]

If we are in the midst of a major depression, we will not be funding any kind of exploration. We are still cleaning up from teetering on the brink of a worldwide depression, and must prevent any kind of slide back to that position.

While that is the case, we must rethink our space program, and put the money where it will do the most. At this time, manned space programs are expensive beyond their returns. As the technology improves, then we can do them at a lower cost and risk because of the information gained with the less expensive unmanned program.