Henry Vanderbilt has a summary of what’s going on with the NASA budget, though it’s a fast-moving topic. For instance, this sort of nonsense occurred after he got the mailing out:
On Wednesday the full House, debating the full-year continuing resolution HR 1, voted 228-203 to approve an amendment that would transfer $298 million from NASA to the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services, a program that provides funding for local police forces. The amendment, introduced by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was actually debated Tuesday evening by the House and failed by a voice vote, but prevailed in the recorded vote hold over to the next day, with 70 Republicans joining 158 Democrats to approve the amendment.
In the current environment, the agency is a wounded antelope on the savannah, and the jackals and hyenas are going to be swarming on it in the coming days and weeks, with people like Anthony Weiner foremost among them.
This is awful on two levels — first, that there is no sensible discussion about what our space policy should be, and second, that there was no discussion of whether or not community policing is even a legitimate federal responsibility. I’d like to see the names of the Republicans who voted for this atrocity, and see how many have claimed fealty to the Tea Party, because if so, they’re flaming hypocrites, and should be mocked and shamed.
[Cross posted at Competitive Space]
[Update a few minutes later]
John Healey at the LA Times agrees:
…it’s hard to extrapolate from the actions Wednesday to a coherent vision of smaller government. The vote that really confounds me is the one in favor of a proposal by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) to restore $298 million for COPS, a neighborhood policing program. The money is to come out of NASA’s budget, shrinking that agency’s funds by an additional 1.6%.
I wouldn’t argue that hiring cops is more or less important than conducting space missions. But hiring cops is clearly a local responsibility, and NASA is clearly a federal responsibility. If you’re going to shrink the federal government, the starting point should be eliminating its involvement in what are purely local affairs. You can’t get more local than neighborhood policing.
But that’s not the logic typically employed by members of Congress. In their calculus, anything that promotes law enforcement is A Good Thing. And until NASA has a mission as sexy as winning the race to the moon, it will never be able to compete with programs like COPS.
Here’s an idea for an even sexier mission: opening up the solar system and its resources to humanity. Which it could afford to do if we would end the insistence on making it a jobs program for engineers of unneeded new rockets.
An important point to notice, for those interested in things Space but not very experienced with the ways of DC:
One cannot wish for them to cut from one NASA program, and expect/hope/assume that the money stays in NASA, and be applied to what they might consider a more deserving project.
Dr. Griffin wasted a rare moment in Federal Government history when Congress and the White House were actually paying a reasonable amount of attention to space policy.
It is reassuring to see the issue of NASA funding being handled in the CR. But I agree that what we are seeing today probably means nothing about what will actually be passed by Congress. Already punting the ball for 5 months has caused a major loss of jobs. This isn’t necessarily bad from the standpoint of cutting federal spending. The problem is the plan really isn’t to cut spending over the long term. So what’s really happening is a major disruption for no valuable purpose. Either do away with NASA or fund it, but the wounded Antelope game (and that’s an apt metaphor) is just pathetic. The saying “Lead, Follow, or Get out of the Way” comes to mind. Any option will do for me, but right now, NASA funding is just a roadblock to US space policy.
An important point to notice, for those interested in things Space but not very experienced with the ways of DC:
One cannot wish for them to cut from one NASA program, and expect/hope/assume that the money stays in NASA, and be applied to what they might consider a more deserving project.
That’s how parasites work. One has to endure pain in order to get rid of them. I don’t know if this particular policy is deliberate or evolved, but it conveniently supports the parasites in government. Given that Congress has been very unwilling to cut funds from NASA for decades, I think this policy is more a bluff than a serious problem.
But hiring cops is clearly a local responsibility,
Unfortunately, it isn’t clear at all anymore. What percentage of local police team goes toward prosecuting the Federal War on Drugs, the War on Immigrants, War on Terror, etc. (or dealing with its collateral damage from those wars)? Certainly over 50%, so, it becomes very hard for war supporters to argue against Federal funding.
Why even bother taking the money from NASA? With the deficit so high and the current administration’s willingness to print money, it would be just as easy to just pass the bill without taking the money from some other organization.
> I’d like to see the names of the Republicans who voted for this atrocity, and see how many have claimed fealty to the Tea Party, because if so, they’re flaming hypocrites, and should be mocked and shamed.
The Tea Party is pretty big, and it’s a lot more devoted to getting the budget under control than it is to strict devotion to federalism or the Constitution. But if you put it that way, which Congressional power does exploring space and conducting scientific experiments fall under? ‘Cause when I read the Constitution it ain’t there. Communication satellites = Post Offices. Military satellites = Military. But landing on the moon? Not seeing it.
Yours,
Tom
P.S. Lots of NASA sounds like it should be done by the states, not the feds.
See as NASA *is* just a jobs program, doesn’t that make it deserving of cuts?
I don’t know. It’s kind of nostalgic to see our rocket programs return to the heady days between WW-II and Sputnik, when we advanced from doodling to finger pointing.
Dr. Griffin wasted a rare moment in Federal Government history when Congress and the White House were actually paying a reasonable amount of attention to space policy.
Agreed!