Richard Shelby (R-NASA), the senator from Huntsville, says that NASA is a “poor stepchild” that doesn’t get enough money.

Sorry, Senator, but government space programs are like any other government program. It does little good to simply shovel money at them, absent useful reform. What NASA needs is some coherent policy from the top, and a complete rethinking of its purpose. After that, we can talk about how much money it needs–it’s quite possible that it could in fact do quite a bit more with less. Of course, that might mean that not as much money flows into northern Alabama…