[billorites]

I'd rather have a tax cut.

[philosofy123]

With such a big defisit, and lifelong preoccupation with the Moslem terrorists war, we need to waste more money on space like we need a hoens in our heads!

[samtheman]

I'd rather have more defense spending.

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[theDentist]

Yeah, why explore space, take the next step away from our tiny planet, or provide an impetus to our economy and technology when we can instead give those dollars to the welfare state?

[ClearCase_guy]

John F. Kennedy:

Gave us a tax cut
Ratcheted up the Vietnam War
Pushed for social programs
Challenged the US to put a man on the moon.

He is a God. Bush is a wasteful, disengaged moron. Repeat until you believe.

[Vision]

This is idiotic. Our country is disintegrating and W wants to go to the Moon. Fantastic!

If Bush only wants to keep busy on things that haven't mattered in 30 years, someone please tell him not to run in '04.

[CPOSharky]

A space program like this will have to start from scratch and work its way up (no pun intended). It won't be a trillion dollars it first year or even the first five years. Total cost is likely to be spread over years if not decades. So all these weenies would rather give money away than work for something to benefit the whole country?

If we don't start now, where will we be in ten years? Renting space from the Chinese on their missions?

[goldstategop]

I'd rather farm it out to the private sector. If we have to conquer the far reaches of the final frontier, let Boeing take the lead for a change.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Bush is just testing the waters of public opinion. This looks good, forward looking, bold thinking, etc, etc. However - this is years off. If public opinion to this isn't favorable on the whole, this will probably quietly fade off the front page - especially considering how short the American people's memories are.

[Frankss]

There is fuel on the moon for starters.We can mine the moon. I think a missle base on the moon is a great idea. We can ship all of our toxic waste up there too. It can be the stepping stone to other planets.It is a good thing for America psychologically and a bad thing for terrorist, let them ponder, while they duct tape nails to a stick of dynamite to kill an innocent stranger, Americans are traveling to other planets. It is the direction for the future, to explore the unknown ,go where no man has gone, ect.

[SunkenCiv]

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities... "In the past three years, what were multi-trillion dollar budget surpluses projected for the coming decade have turned into multi-trillion dollar budget deficits," he said in a press release. Greenstein said President Bush must explain where the money for his space initiative will come from: "Will he agree to scale back some of the munificent and very costly tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?" Greenstein asked.

What I want to know is, why are there not laws mandating that non-gov'tal political shilling organizations aren't required to have "Ad hoc Non-Governmental" as a prefix to their names? And who pays Greenstein's bills?

Trillion dollar budget deficits? What a ridiculous claim. The total budget is north of a trillion, compared with the few hundred billion it was under JFK, LBJ, and Nixon, when the $20 billion Apollo program rec'd much of its funding. Infrastructure for a moon program won't have to be built from scratch.

The US has no direction in space, apart from maintaining the expensive ($500 per launch and turnaround) STS (space shuttle) so that (eventually, when that resumes flying) large pieces of the ISS (international space station, meaning that the Russians use it) can be delivered and installed, and eventually (within 15 years) the whole structure can be decommissioned and dumped into the Pacific.

The US should build a heavy lift capability that is much cheaper, and that means so-called expendible boosters like the old Saturn V. Anything the US does in space (space station, Mars missions, probe missions to the planets and beyond) will require a heavy lift capability. The US also should build a lunar station, on the "dark side", for radiotelescopy. -- 'Civ

People seem to forget -- as they do with military spending -- that the money spent mostly (or entirely) stays in the US. In the case of the Pentagon, we don't roll up $50 bills and shoot them into the crania of the enemy. The bullet makers are people working in the US. Same goes for the space program.

No, I don't work in either the aerospace or defense industry.

The tax cut was nice, but to really do it right, the rates should be left alone and the personal exemption raised to $20,000. Everyone who pays income taxes now would still get a tax cut, but it would fall disproportionately on those of us who don't make a lot. Supposedly the rich folks pay 96 per cent of income taxes, so the total "cost" to the gov't would be less 4 per cent of receipts.

[Dead Dog]

For the Nay Sayers: Three things

1). Without a renewed space program, Aerospace in America is dead. Without Aerospace, we don't have defence. Without Defense, we don't have sovereignty. How much is that worth to us?

2). The Space Shuttle was never intened to work, it was a sneaky way of keeping Nixon and the Democraps from killing our lauch capability. The Bush plan only increases Nasa's budget by %5 a year. It won't break the bank. Tax Payers pay more than this to keep Ted Kennedy in Scotch.

3) This post is from CNN and is merely a Vehicle for this Greenstein cat to spew his anti-bush invective

"Greenstein said President Bush must explain where the money for his space initiative will come from: "Will he agree to scale back some of the munificent and very costly tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?" Greenstein asked. "

The above lets you know exactly which side Greenstein is playing for.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!