It’s Spent Right Here

Take a look at that image on the left. What do you see? Yes, you see people. They are working at and FOR NASA on a space mission.  They are educated. They spend their paychecks on their homes, groceries, cars, electronics, clothes, and all the other things they have in their daily lives. They also pay taxes, which go for things like fire protection, police protection, education, street paving, and all the other things that government provides with our tax money.They aren’t in jail. They aren’t causing trouble.

I think this is a point lost on Democratic Representative (NY) Antony Weiner, who is proposing to raid NASA funding to pay for a community policing program. His thinking?  He said that the money he wants isn’t going to get spent on Mars. And so, he wants NASA to pay for a program that has nothing to do with science or exploration. This isn’t about whether policing is important — clearly it is. It’s about mugging NASA to pay police.

I have news for you, Representative Weiner. There isn’t any money being spent ON Mars.  The money NASA gets IS spent right here on Earth.  It pays people’s salaries. It boosts R&D. It boosts EDUCATION.  NASA technology gets recycled into things like medical advances and communications devices. Some of the money that NASA people get paid is recycled into property taxes, income taxes, and other fees that should be coming back to things like community policing — which are important parts of what COMMUNITIES need and do.  Isn’t community policing something that is funded by the community?  If so, why are you taking FEDERAL funding and funneling into something your community should be paying for out of its tax revenues? If your community policing program isn’t getting the right kind of money, perhaps it’s time to look at how the money that should have been coming to it from taxes, etc. is being spent.

NASA is not the place to gouge out money for such things. I suggest that the more you cut NASA, the LESS there will be in tax revenues coming in from people whose salaries come from NASA, from the educational programs that NASA inspires. And, when education fails and tax monies don’t come in… well, I suspect unemployment will cause crime rates to soar and you WILL need that community policing program. And a lot more stopgap measures to deal with an underpaid, undereducated population. Is that what you want? If so, it’s the consequence you are choosing by taking the action of nibbling at NASA’s budget for something your own state and city should be paying for.  Because, take away NASA and science funding and you’re taking away one of the few things that inspires children and adults to further their education and lot in life.  Yes, NASA is all that and more.

It’s understandable that the “gentleman” from NY wants to get a bigger piece of the pie for his constituents.  In the absence of any leadership from the White House (or the Democratic Party for that matter) in terms of saving NASA funding, it’s easy to see why he and the packs of budget dogs are nipping at NASA. It’s low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to gut. It’s easy to make fun of. It’s easy to stir up the masses who are afraid of science by pointing at NASA and its accomplishments and calling them “ungodly” or anti-religion or anti-human or the other things that wingers usually use to demonize what they don’t understand.

But, that low-hanging fruit is the seed corn this nation needs to move forward technologically and scientifically. Oh, and medically. And financially. Cutting NASA is like a family stopping car payments for ideological reasons, thus leaving the breadwinners unable to get to work anymore to earn the money to feed the family. They may feel like they’ve made a political point, but they had to cut off their nose to spite their faces. Makes NO sense.

When NASA is gone, where will Weiner and the bi-partisan jackals turn next for money for their pet projects?  I shudder to think, but I can surmise that defense, faith-based “initiatives” and other right-wing boondoggles will not suffer the same cuts.

So what, you say.  Well, think about this. NASA gets less than 1 percent of the federal budget.  It costs you, me, everybody, a few pennies PER YEAR. And for those pennies, we get an incredible amount of science, education, medical, and developmental stimulus.  NASA money comes back at a rate many times what we pay into it, from investment in new products, educational achievements, to  increased access to technology that powers our nation. NASA grants to research are spread across all states, paying the salaries of people in universities, colleges, education centers, and many other places.  So, it’s not just at a few NASA centers. It’s across the country. And we all lose when NASA is gutted by snarling jackals tearing at it for a few pennies to fund their pet projects.

Where is the leadership on this?  I am reasonably certain that the Republicans will NOT be leading us to improve science, R&D and education in this country — given by the evidence of their current actions to gut NASA. That such raids on NASA are now coming from the Democratic side of the aisle is a disappointing development.  They’re forcing us to eat the seed corn, and when it’s all gone, we’ll have nothing left to show for it.