Campaign '12

Mack echoes the “no plan” criticism of NASA

A day after Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan claimed “we have effectively no plan” for NASA under the Obama Administration, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Florida offered similar criticism of current national space policy.

Speaking to reporters in Titusville, Florida, after a closed-door meeting with the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, Rep. Connie Mack IV (R-FL) said President Obama as well as Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who Mack is running against, had not done enough for space. “They continue to change the mission, and when you change the mission, it’s a floundering program,” Mack said, as reported by Florida Today. “The president and Senator Nelson have done nothing to set a long-term plan and mission for NASA.”

That criticism is similar to what Ryan said Thursday in Ocala, Florida: “The Obama administration came in and they inherited a plan for NASA from the Bush administration. They had a plan for space. They jettisoned that plan,” Ryan said. The Obama Administration, though, has established some long-term goals for NASA’s human spaceflight program, including a mission to a near Earth asteroid by 2025 and one to orbit Mars by the mid-2030, as outlined by the president himself in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center two and a half years ago.

So if Mack doesn’t like the administration’s plans, or perceived lack of them, what does he propose? Mack was vague on any details in his conversation with reporters on Friday. “We need to be bold,” he said, the Orlando Sentinel reported, but, the article added, Mack “was non-committal about increasing or even sustaining funding for NASA.” Mack did endorse the Space Leadership Act, legislation introduced last month that would give the NASA administrator a ten-year term and establish a board of directors (a majority of whom would be appointed by Congress) to provide oversight to the agency. Mack is one of the 16 cosponsors of the bill, HR 6491.

After Mack’s comments, the Nelson campaign responded, noting the work he and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) did in 2010 to develop a NASA authorization act. “[H]is and Sen. Hutchison’s plan keeps the U.S. the leader in science and technology for defense and national security reasons,” a Nelson spokesman said, adding that Mack was the only member of the Florida House delegation to vote against the bill in 2010.

17 comments to Mack echoes the “no plan” criticism of NASA

  • Robert G. Oler

    So if Mack doesn’t like the administration’s plans, or perceived lack of them, what does he propose? Mack was vague on any details in his conversation with reporters on Friday. “We need to be bold,” he said, the Orlando Sentinel reported, but, the article added, Mack “was non-committal about increasing or even sustaining funding for NASA.”

    Translation: most of the people we are hoping for votes from are either terminally stupid or are sucked into fox news/Rush etc propaganda and just really dont like “the black guy” so we can more or less say anything and they will buy it.

    RGO

  • E.P, Grondine

    “The Obama administration came in and they inherited a plan for NASA from the Bush administration. They had a plan for space. They jettisoned that plan.”

    If you have a “plan” that violates the laws of physics, is it a “plan” or a $9 billion ATK boondoogle?

    If the President adopts a plan, and some keep claiming that that plan does not exist, then does that plan not exist?

  • E.P, Grondine

    Hi RGO –

    “Translation: most of the people we are hoping for votes from are either terminally stupid or are sucked into fox news/Rush etc propaganda and just really dont like “the black guy” so we can more or less say anything and they will buy it.”

    What really amazes me is the contempt shown by these people by running a candidate who used Swiss bank accounts to hide income.

  • Vladislaw

    So typical, tear down but then offer nothing. Why not commit yourself to a proposal …. right or wrong .. support SOMETHING other than vague we have to be bold statements and nothing about funding.

  • Dark Blue Nine

    Mack’s comments are like the Gnomes episode of the TV show South Park where the underpants gnomes explain their business plan:

    Phase 1: Collect underpants

    Phase 2: ?

    Phase 3: Profit!

    Mack’s plans for NASA appears to be:

    Phase 1: Be bold

    Phase 2: ?

    Phase 3: Space!

    As crappy as the 2010 NASA Authorization Act was/is, it’s a bald-faced lie to claim that Nelson never put forth a plan.

    I want to vote for something better than Nelson (or Obama), but in the space arena, the Republicans are offering no alternatives, good or bad. Just platitudes.

  • MrEarl

    17 days till the end of the silly season! Yea!!!

    17 days and one minute till the start of the next. Sigh………

  • Martijn Meijering

    Mack wouldn’t be an improvement on space policy, but Nelson was so bad to begin with that that hardly matters. I’d like to see Nelson punished for his misdeeds and at least replaced by someone with less seniority. Unfortunately, Nelson had a clear lead over Mack when I last checked.

  • Curtis Quick

    I can’t help the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that no matter who wins in November we all lose. It sure would be nice to have a candidate worth voting for on either side.

  • DCSCA

    “we have effectively no plan” for NASA under the Obama Administration,”

    Apparently Mr. Ryan is confused w/t musings from the top of his own ticket– those planning to fire any manager who talks of moon bases and such. Hence, the fate of Newt Gingrich- Moon President in the primaries. . The Obama space policy was delivered in a speech at KSC three years ago. Young Mr. Ryan can find it on YouTube. Whether he can find Cape Canaveral– or the NASM in Washingtog is another matter.

  • I can’t help the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that no matter who wins in November we all lose. It sure would be nice to have a candidate worth voting for on either side.

    Man, ain’t that the truth!

    So if Mack doesn’t like the administration’s plans, or perceived lack of them, what does he propose? Mack was vague on any details in his conversation with reporters on Friday. “We need to be bold,” he said, the Orlando Sentinel reported, but, the article added, Mack “was non-committal about increasing or even sustaining funding for NASA.”

    GOP supporters will be crying in their beer if Mittens gets elected and NASA funding gets cut further and no Moon missions get announced. Commercial completely takes over astronaut and main supplies to ISS and little else but SLS gets funded.

    Of course the GOPers will claim they supported commercial all along and it was their idea!

  • What’s in the party platform, what the candidate says on the road, in the end doesn’t matter.

    We have two track records.

    We’ve seen for the last four years the Obama track record. With his first three budgets, Obama proposed increasing NASA’s budget only to have Congress cut it. With the current proposed budget, it’s basically flat but Congress intends to cut it again.

    The Romney track record? He’s spent his life as a salesman, trying to separate people from their money so he can invest it and make a profit.

    He’s demonstrated he has no interest in space, science or technology in general. My guess is the Romney administration would basically cancel everything but SLS to keep happy the Republican porkers in Congress whose districts and states employ people working on that project.

    To pay for SLS, we’ll go back to the Bush-era plan — splash the ISS in 2015. That means the cancellation of commercial cargo and crew, because there won’t be a need for those vehicles.

    The future is in the balance on Election Day. I fear for the future of NASA and NewSpace if Romney is elected.

  • Vladislaw

    “GOP supporters will be crying in their beer if Mittens gets elected and NASA funding gets cut further and no Moon missions get announced. “

    Since when? They will simply blame the last administration and the tax and spend democrats. It is what they always do. Reagan didn’t quadruple the national debt, democrats did, doesn’t matter if Reagan didn’t veto anything. Same with Bush, he doubled the national debt and it was the democrats fault because he refused to veto anything to keep congress inline. You have to remember rule #1, it is ALWAYS the democrats fault …. always.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Curtis Quick wrote @ October 21st, 2012 at 3:43 am

    I can’t help the gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach that no matter who wins in November we all lose. It sure would be nice to have a candidate worth voting for on either side.>>

    I have felt that way for sometime and what you see after Obama’s first debate is that feeling settling in the pit of the American people…while one can give a “slight” advantage to Obama due to state polls the reality is that the race is about tied.

    Sadly for me at least neither candidate has so far addressed the main issue surrounding the country; the fact that the cold war is over and the economics/foreign policy/trade policy that ensued from that is now a weight on the US not a lift. Romney is a little worse in this because the GOP simply cannot embrace the notion of the end of the superpower era (hence the lather over events in the mideast as they turn pygmies into giants the concentration on large military budgets and a fascination with Reagan). Obama simply is mum on the issue. He (Obama) has done some movement away from a superpower model but they are tentative and at least I get the feel from the second debate that he doesnt completely understand it (and his performance in the first debate just petrified me)

    Obama in the last debate had a good answer about manufactoring jobs but gee where was the reference to SpaceX/Orbital/Bigelow etc the people who ARE creating new jobs for a new ear and competing world wide.

    Romney is a guy (and represents a party) that sees the pieces of the puzzle and already knows what the picture turns out to be; good v evil, US always good never erring v some people who want to rape everything including our dogs… Obama looks at the pieces and says “wow there is a picture here?”

    If this were 30 years ago Romney might be the guy…Obama if for no other reason then he has stumbled in it for his space policy is the guy for this time. His space policy at least recognizes that the cold war models no longer work and they will do amazing things eventually.

    However I would note this; in any event (and again I see Obama winning this in a blue/gray match) we are in for very very hard times for a bit.

    RGO

  • William Mellberg

    Stephen C. Smith wrote:

    “I fear for the future of NASA and NewSpace if Romney is elected.”

    I fear for the future of America and the world if Obama is re-elected.

    Barack Obama has been a disaster for both.

    Perhaps a successful businessman can do better than an incompetent community organizer who was long on rhetorical skill and short on relevant experience.

    Stephen C. Smith also wrote:

    “The Romney track record? He’s spent his life as a salesman, trying to separate people from their money so he can invest it and make a profit.”

    And what about Elon Musk, my friend? He’s spent his life selling things (e.g., PayPal), taking tax dollars (i.e., peoples’ money), investing it (in SpaceX and Tesla Motors) and making profits.

  • Coastal Ron

    William Mellberg wrote @ October 22nd, 2012 at 2:21 pm

    And what about Elon Musk [versus Romney]

    Musk is an entrepreneur – he creates businesses out of nothing but an idea and hard work. What Romney did at Bain Capital was invest in established companies and manage them.

    Both take skill, but Romney is no entrepreneur in the classic sense of coming up with an original business idea and making it happen. Even with Bain capital Romney didn’t risk any of his own money to start the company, since it was funded by Bill Bain himself.

    Romney, despite what he says, doesn’t know how to startup and run companies. He only knows how to manage large established companies that no longer want to be independent. That’s a good skill, but it doesn’t make him an expert on how to grow the U.S. economy.

  • common sense

    “And what about Elon Musk, my friend?”

    Elon’s running for President of the US? Wow! Go Elon!!!!

    Yeah my orange is a lot better than your apple! Yeah man! This explains a lot though.

  • pathfinder_01

    “And what about Elon Musk, my friend? He’s spent his life selling things (e.g., PayPal), taking tax dollars (i.e., peoples’ money), investing it (in SpaceX and Tesla Motors) and making profits.”

    So did a lot of the great and most inflentual people in history, comrade. Selling things means he employs people to do things that have some sort of demand. Investing tax payer money very often is how huge projects like railroads and airports get done and if your company is not making a profit you soon will be out of business.

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