Lyndon Johnson tried to have both "guns and butter" (Viet Nam and
Apollo) -- and started our long, death spiral of deficit spending.

NASA's budget is rather insignificant compared with *any* military
spending. Why concentrate on the pennies while wasting the megabucks?

Guess you weren't around during the heady Apollo days, eh? NASA's budget
was hardly insignificant when we were building moonships.

Nowadays, of course, you are correct.

L.B.Johnson tried to do all sorts of things besides NASA on the "butter"
side of the budget, including "The War On Poverty" and "The Great
Society" -- both of which squandered trillions and failed to do anything but
make entire segments of our society utterly dependent upon the government
teat.

Which was, of course, the ultimate goal -- but that's another thread.

Of course, when he tried to do all these things AND Apollo AND Viet Nam,
something had to give.

In the end, we lost Mars, and possibly the future of the human race. It's
very sad, and future generations will probably look back on the time
immediately following the moon landings as a bizarre, anti-exploration
backlash, not unlike what the Islamo-Fascists are trying to impose on the
world today.

Jay... "they" are "us". We middle-aged citizens are the ones in the
driver's seat. And, from what I can see, we're not doing so hot at
driving. Or even thinking about what direction we should be driving. So,
instead, we run in circles like chickens missing our heads, enacting piles
of pointless legislation and hoping that no one with any power objects.

True enough, but look at our choices! My God, we've got the conservatives
controlling the Federal Government, which should virtually assure a balanced
budget and fiscal restraint -- something I have supported my entire adult
life. Instead we've got unfettered pork-barrel spending, on an almost
universal scale. There isn't a county in America that isn't receiving some
sort of Federal payola in the current budget, and it's disgusting.

And the loyal opposition presents absolutely no alternative. If anything,
the situation would be frighteningly worse, if the tables were turned. I
can't imagine what the deficit would be if the Democrats were to ever
control both houses of congress, and the presidency. It boggles the mind.

No, I'm afraid we are screwed until the Libertarians figure out how to
present a politically viable candidate. It will be a race to see if that
will happen before the next revolution.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"