My opinion
Houston, we have a problem — no Republican presidential candidate supportsfederal funding for NASA
There was a fairly large brouhaha recently over the decision to give one of the retired shuttle orbiters to New York City instead of Houston. Politicians were up in arms; a radio talk show host bought billboards claiming Houston was “insulted” and letters to the editors screamed about how Obama hates Texas and he needs to go.
So it was with great interest during Monday night’s Republican debate when the question of funding NASA was raised. Were those crickets I heard in the background? Not a single candidate indicated they were in favor of continuing to fund NASA. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had the strongest argument against NASA saying it had “become an absolute case study in why bureaucracy cannot innovate.”
Now I won’t claim to be an expert on whether or not the private sector can do a better job (although one wonders if they would charge an astronaut a baggage fee, or let them sit in an emergency exit row for an additional charge).
No, my question is how did we get here? There must be somebody to blame. Will there be outrage? Will radio talk show hosts put up new billboards screaming bloody hell? Even Congressman Ron Paul whose district butts up against the Johnson Space Center did not raise his hand, but nobody really takes him seriously do they? What is a Texan to think?
So what will happen to the engineers and scientists currently employed at NASA? Those jobs will probably be outsourced to the private sector. The good news is that Texas is leading the country in new jobs (albeit those jobs are minimum wage), but I’m sure a NASA engineer will be more than qualified to work the drive thru at McDonalds.
You want fries with that?
