[extropy-chat] USA - No Science, No space travel, No money ........

[BillK]

Over at "What's New?",
<http://www.aps.org/WN/WN05/wn030405.cfm>

Friday, March 4, 2005

1. SCIENCE BUDGET: TAX REVENUES DOWN, WAR COSTS UP, BIG TROUBLE.
You don't have to be Alan Greenspan to know what happens when taxes
are cut during a costly war. And it's happening. Science, with no
champions in this administration, looks to be one of the big losers.
NASA, alone among science agencies, would get an increase under the
Bush request, but the entire 5%, and more, is destined for the
Moon-Mars Initiative, which has no discernible science content.
Meanwhile, Hubble will be dropped in the ocean.

2. MOON-MARS INITIATIVE: EXPLORING THE OUTER LIMITS OF POLITICS.
So what's really behind "The Vision"? Why is the administration
pushing so hard for a science initiative that scientists scorn, and
which won't take place on Bush's watch? Ah, but that's the plan. It
will be up to the next administration, stuck with a huge deficit, to
decide whether to go ahead with a meaningless but staggeringly
expensive program to see if humans can do what robots are already
doing. As one well-informed NASA watcher put it, "Moon-Mars is a
poison pill. It hangs responsibility for ending the humans-in-space
program on the next administration."

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And he hasn't even mentioned the growing Social Security problems as well.

Not a very optimistic outlook in the US.

It might be so bad in four years time that the Dems won't even try to
get elected.

BillK