Mentioning the NOAA brings to mind a true story from a few years ago regarding a Republican Rep whose name, I'm sad to say, I can't recall.
In referring to the NOAA, this Rep said that we (meaning the taxpayers) didn't need the NOAA for weather forecasting (among other things) and that their budget should be seriously scaled back because....
Are you ready for this?
...because we could get our weather forecasts from TV. Well, there's just one very serious problem with that idea! It's the fact that TV news, in actuality, gets THEIR weather forecasts FROM the NOAA. That's just one example of the poorly informed Republicans who think they know what they're talking about when, in reality, they don't have a clue.