With the Senate approving today its version of the stimulus bill, featuring $1.3 billion for NASA, more than double what the House version of the bill provides, you’d think Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), whose district includes NASA/KSC, would be pleased. And she is, but only up to a point, the Orlando Sentinel reports. “I am glad to see that the Senate included dedicated funding for NASA’s space program, which will help minimize the gap between the Shuttle Program and Constellation,” she said in a statement provided to the paper. “But unfortunately, the Senate cut important investments in school construction and education – investments that will create jobs, prevent teacher layoffs and help us provide children with a 21st century education. I am hopeful that the final recovery package will restore much of this critical funding.” The question is: if she had to choose between the extra NASA funding in the Senate version and the education funding in the House version, which would she pick?
It’s going to be interesting to watch the Democrat civil war over this atrocity of a bill, because the Republicans, other than the turncoats in New England and Pennsylvania, are sitting on the sidelines.
Get out the popcorn.
If the goal is really still stimulating the economy — getting more money flowing through the economy in the next few months — then Kosmas should pick education funding over Constellation. Localities around the country are facing teacher layoffs due to declining real estate values and tax income. Whether one thinks additional education funding is good or not, keeping teachers (or anyone else) employed will keep more money circulating in the economy in the short-term. Taxpayer dollars spent on Constellation, by contrast, will take NASA many months up to a couple years just to get obligated (i.e., on contract), and even more time after that to get spent and into the economy. Even if Constellation had merit on its own, it’s not relevant to the bill’s actual economic stimulus goals.
Also, contrary to Kosmas’s statement, it’s important to point out that the amount of Constellation funding in the Senate bill, only $450 million, will not “help minimize the gap between the Shuttle Program and Constellation” by any appreciable amount. At the time he was leaving the Administrator’s office, even Griffin admitted that it would take an additional $4 billion to accelerate Ares I/Orion readiness by just one year. So $450 million will only accelerate Ares I/Orion by less than one and a half months, at best. Forget Constellation… a half billion dollars of my children or grandchildren’s taxes is not worth a lousy one-and-a-half month acceleration of any imaginable NASA civil space project.
And until the Obama Administration has decided whether it will continue pursuing Constellation, throwing money at the program risks completely wasting taxpayer resources. Even assuming a new NASA Administrator is identified and confirmed and the White House assesses its civil space policies in the coming weeks, the earliest that we’ll have an indication of the Obama Administration’s direction on Constellation is the President’s FY 2010 Budget, and that won’t be released until at least May. Until then, Congress should stand down on Constellation funding augmentations.
FWIW…
“So $450 million will only accelerate Ares I/Orion by less than one and a half months, at best”
Ah yes, but once we factor in a deflationary spiral, it may shrink a few times closer to cost price if we wait
civil war turncoats
That seems to suit you. The first civil war was also a wonderful sporting event for all those involved too, well over a half a million dead if I recall correctly.
Have you ever had a rational thought in your life? People like you are the real problem in America, not the solution, trust me. Now get back to your civil war reenactments and be sure to polish up that confederate flag on your truck.
Real American >”…Have you ever had a rational thought in your life? People like you are the real problem in America, not the solution…”
Come on now, give him a break. Mr. Simberg hasn’t yet learned to talk out of the correct end of his alimentary canal. Sooner or later he will.