Obama and Space Exploration
The founder of USA TODAY felt strongly enough about Obama’s intent to constrain our Space Program to point out that we’re now #2 to Russia, soon to be #3 to China, with others beginning to play as well. The catalyst for his cutting back severely was clearly budget issues, which I’m more than concerned about (as he must be while our expense magnitudes skyrocket).
Note: Our war budget is $159.3B, while our space budget is $19B. This almost 10:1 ratio is not surprising. USA TODAY founder Al Neuharth says: “That suggests that Afghanistan and Iraq are nearly 10 times more important than exploring the last frontier in space”. Neal Armstrong is also very upset, even though exploring Mars is part of Obama’s alternative idea (I wonder how Mars will be so much less expensive than the moon).
My only point is that Obama is literally all over the map, with some good ideas but many seemingly half-baked. For me, his Iran attitude combined with his Near East attitudes seem very perplexing (among other issues).
Iit’s tough to be President in our super-complex world, and many of Obama’s challenges result from his predecessor’s administration.
