Re: Space funding (was Re: Hillary needs to quit)

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 13:34:43 -0400, "Dano" <janeanddano@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Derek Lyons wrote:

>>>>>>> And you'd be right. Obama discussed delaying the Constellation
>>>>>>> Project for five years, not shutting down NASA. *

>>>>>> What did he say NASA was going to be doing during those five years
>>>>>> instead of Constellation?

>>>>> (groups trimmed, subject refocused)

>>> <more trimming...back to the over-riding issue>

>>> "When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school,
>>> it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe." - Colin Powell,
>>> founding chairman of America's Promise Alliance, which issued a
>>> re****t last Tuesday that says 17 of the 50 largest cities have high
>>> school graduation rates below 50 percent. (from the Boston Globe,
>>> April 5th - Quotes of Note)

>>> We can't afford to educate the next generation of NASA employees.
>>> We better figure out how to do that first.  It's about spending
>>> priorities.

>> Ever actually compared NASA's budget to those 'other priorities'?

>> I thought not.  Or you'd note what a vani****ngly small drop in the
>> bucket it amounts to.  Someone even more intellectually honest and
>> agile would note the vast amount of money we've spent on those 'other
>> priorities' over the years, and the astoni****ngly small return - and
>> wonder if the problem really was that we aren't shoveling enough money
>> into the furnace.

>I know that education spending *is* a very small drop in the bucket
compared 
>to the spending on the havoc we haved wreaked in the Middle East lately. 

Total US spending on the Iraq War, 2003 - present, per the Congressional
Research Service: $520 billion.

Total spending on public primary and secondary (i.e K-12) education in
the US, 2003 - present, per the US Census Bureau: $2,700 billion.

That's a five-gallon drop in a one-gallon bucket.  Which means, the 
only thing in this discussion that counts as "very small" is Dano's
credibility.

For everyone else, consider the implications: The United States spend
half a *trillion* dollars a year on public K-12 education.  That's not
counting private or parochial schools, and it's not counting colleges
and universities.  Half a trillion dollars.

Anybody who thinks the problem is that we aren't spending enough money
on education, think again.  Anybody who thinks spending more money will
help, think again.  Anybody who thinks raiding NASA's budget, or even
the Pentagon's budget, is going to make any difference at all, check
with lost and found because you've misplaced a big chunk of your brain.


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