“Cheney to Treasury: “Deficits don’t matter”
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was told “deficits don’t matter” when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis. O’Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush’s economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from “the corporate crowd,” a key constituency.

The vice president’s office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O’Neill, insisted that deficits “do matter” to the administration.”

When the Republicans are in office, deficits don’t seem to matter, but man they sure do when a Democrat is in office.

Vote for me, I will cut your taxes and cut spending. We can see how that has worked under Reagan and Bush. Slash revenue and run wars off the books.

Maybe its time you read publications other than Time when you want information on the space industry. There’s Aviation Week; Space News from Phillips is good, along with their “Satellite News” and “Defense Daily”; and Jane’s publications in English.

Perhaps if you spent more time reading them, and less time writing here, your comments might be a little more coherent.

But please don’t give up. Coffee, cigarettes, and the aggravation from dealing with your nonsense gets me going in the morning.

“The deficit skyrocketed. Bush I and Clinton restored taxes to a reasonable level and balanced the budget with continued growth, but Bush II slashed taxes again and again plunged the country into deficits and depression. How many more times is it necessary to disprove the Laffer curve?”

there is a case to be made that the entire notion pushed by the “rising tide lifts all boats” crowd is about to run out of steam…One doesnt have to go farther then the Paul Ryan inspired Town halls where the “keep the rich getting richer” schemes are starting to inspire some serious angst among voters. This is going to continue as the people who on the face of it claim they want “small government” really like The Empire we have and particularly in how it affects their lives.

It is to far out to see right now, but one of the interesting currents that is forming up is the possibility that the issue over all (and again it is to far out) in the 12 election is going to be “fairness”…along with “responsibility” in government spending.

The GOP base is about the dumbest that has ever existed…but they are nuetralizing themselves with fixation over the birther issue AND the fact that a lot of them are “old” and like their big government programs…the next six months are going to be fascinating to watch.

The heads up in space policy and politics is to see if 1) the HLV report from the dolts at JSC is as bad as it looks on the documents I have read and 2) what the general and political reaction to that is going to be.

12 billion (and it will be more) for 4 (FOUR) launches of a SDV…

Goofy Robert G. Oler

Did my eyes deceive me or was Ares I-X not a magnificent success.

Your eyes? I doubt they decieved you – I don’t wish to speak to other body parts.

Time magazine called it the invention of the year for 2009.

Such a bastion of engineering or conservatism. Truly a ringing endorsement.

Let us judge the economies of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, and recall that Reagan was dealt the inferior hand. Talk about voodoo economics all you want. I say compare the results.

The current malaise is the electorate’s 30 year periodic reminder of the disastrous futility of Keynesian economics. Let is hope that it is at least that long until it rears its ugly head again.

ATK ran into with large grain solid rocket motors – the oscillation problem.

Did my eyes deceive me or was Ares I-X not a magnificent success. Time magazine called it the invention of the year for 2009.

AW – Like I said, this calamity happened on Nelson’s watch. He can try to blame Bush or blame Griffin. I am not sure the Florida electorate will accept that excuse. It doesn’t seem a winning strategy, but I hope he runs on it.

AW, Nelson could point out the unforeseen technical problems ATK ran into with large grain solid rocket motors – the oscillation problem.

If Nelson was pressed further, he could blame it on ATK’s inability to deliver on time and on cost.

If further pressed, he can point out to the effort he made to enable DIRECT, only to have that effort way-laid by ATK and the Utah Delegation.

And he can point out that manned operations at the Cape will be back soon with SpaceX and ULA, and that a good HLV will be along shortly.

As gasoline prices are going up again, and that is bound to have an effect on Florida tourism again, Nelson can also run on the Republican obstruction of high speed rail. It would have generated employment in the Florida construction industry, and could already be doing so.

Its how the kids, grandkids and friends will visit, and its how many tourists will visit the beaches, Miami, and KSFC in the future. My guess is they ought to run a monorail from KSFC to Disneyworld and the other Orlando attractions, though a high speed rail spur would work just fine. Or perhaps the spur should be to the southern beaches and Miami. My guess is that one transfer would be acceptable to most users, but then I’m not a high speed rail planning expert.

We have to go to Europe and Japan to get that information.

The Laffer Curve, the idea that cutting taxes would paradoxically increase tax revenue, was rightly called “voodoo economics” by George HW Bush when he was running against Reagan. But Reagan told people convincingly that it was true, that greed was patriotic, and he was elected. The deficit skyrocketed. Bush I and Clinton restored taxes to a reasonable level and balanced the budget with continued growth, but Bush II slashed taxes again and again plunged the country into deficits and depression. How many more times is it necessary to disprove the Laffer curve?

With hindsight it may have been better to make finding jobs for the ex-contractor a NASA programme.

Like I said, this calamity happened on Nelson’s watch. He can try to blame Bush or blame Griffin. I am not sure the Florida electorate will accept that excuse. It doesn’t seem a winning strategy, but I hope he runs on it.

Obama proposed work on high speed rail to fill in this pause. That would have freed up Florida’s economy from its oil dependence to a great degree. Who killed that, AW? Tell them there is still time to repent.

Obama’s malinvestments in a Soviet style rail system have been summarily rejected, and rightly so. The notion that there is any economic benefit for Florida is absurd. The left clings to green energy and collective transportation. There is no substitute for driving a large SUV to work, or flying a jet plane to Vegas. And there is plenty of oil off of Florida’s coasts for the fuel.

AW, the bottom line is that you don’t pay for a war with tax cuts for billionaires. It does not work.

It is in the interest of a rational Government to maximize tax revenues. You do that by expanding the economy, not by punitively squeezing its most productive participates. Look up the Laffer Curve. But government is not rational. Democrats would rather squabble over a smaller pie than make a bigger one.

AW, the Cape is far from dead, but the responsibility for this Pause and this Disruption lies firmly with Griffin and the Utah delegation.

Watching this morning’s commercial space conference at KSC, one of the speakers presented a map showing states with some direct relationship to CCDev.

Utah was not one of them.

They rolled their dice on protecting their government monopoly, and lost.