Cutting back the space program is a foolish budgetary choice.
Consider Kennedy and his call to go to the moon within a decade. The resultant scientific, engineering and even food science advances were unprecedented.
Obama could have could have cut in a lot of places that just suck dollars without benefit. And even done "a Kennedy" by setting a goal that would have had similar benefits:
"NASA has had successes and failures over the past decades. But now it is time for NASA to lose the bloat and get down to the business of exploration. And the eventual opening of that exploration to non-governmental entities.
I want to see us return to the moon and beyond. I want NASA to become the NASA of the 60s. I'm opening up space exploration as a partnership between business, academic, research and the government. I'm directing NASA to come up with a plan, vetted by our partners, that will breathe enthusiasm and life back into the excitement our country felt as we landed on the moon.
And NASA, in its best moments, sparks the imagination of us as a people, making dreams of great achievements realities. The secondary and tertiary developments provide us as a nation a stronger economy and a more educated people, with dreams of the future rather than the nightmares of a failing nation."
All Obama's done is depressed another sector of our nation's economy which attracts some of the brightest people in our country.
The true purpose of government is to defend our country and our way of life.
So working to get out of space would be a good thing. But then, so would getting out of a whole BUNCH things, like education, bank bailouts, "health reform", etc., that far exceed that mandate
