Barack Obama Pits Space Explorers Against School Children

Barack Obama wants to slash funding for the NASA program to develop a replacement for the space shuttle that will not only fly to low Earth orbit, but also beyond to the Moon and Mars. He is doing this "for the children" as a means to pay for an education initiative. Whenever a politician wants to do something "for the children", it's time to watch out.

According to a story on the MSNBC website, "Though Obama called for a renewed investment in math and science education, his plan would actually pull money from the federal government's greatest investments and achievements in math and science. Obama would delay funding for the NASA Constellation program for five years, though he would maintain the $500 million in funding the program would receive for its manufacturing and technology base, in order to help fund his education policy. The campaign did not say how much money delaying the program would provide. "

The really frightening aspect of the plan is that the Obama plan means that, barring a commercial alternative, the United States will be dependent on foreigners (i.e. the Russians) to send people into space for at least a decade. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican, and Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, have pointed out that this would make the United States over dependant on a country with which America has had increasingly frosty relations.

It is clear from the shortage of details in the proposal that Obama and his people lack even a modicum of understanding of its implications. The United States will have no means of its own, again barring a commercial alternative, of servicing the International Space Station. The return to the Moon would be deferred into the third decade of this century, virtually ensuring that the Chinese will be able to get there first should they choose to do so.

Politically the proposal seems to be mad as well. Aerospace workers in Florida and elsewhere are already facing layoffs once the space shuttle fleet stands down. To have essentially no human space flight operations at the Kennedy Space Center for ten years would be devastating to that's state's economy. Florida, being a swing state, would be lost to Obama most likely as a result. Texas, California, and other space states would suffer as well.

There are no details in the Obama proposal about how this situation could be alleviated. Flying the shuttle past 2010 would certainly cost a lot of money and would tend to defeat Obama's purpose for using the Orion program as a cash cow. Obama is silent about encouraging commercial alternatives, such as SpaceX's Dragon space craft being developed under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) program.

The Republican National Committee, seeing an opportunity, has pounced. According to The Hill, RNC spokesman Danny Diaz stated, "It is ironic that Barack Obama's plan to help our children reach for the stars is financed in part by slashing a program that helps us learn about those very same stars."

Obama seems to be following a playbook that the Left has used since the early days of the space age, which is to pit space exploration against some favored cause or group. In this case, Obama is pitting space exploration against school children. In a sense Obama is following in the steps of such luminaries as Walter Mondale, former Vice President and 1984 Presidential candidate. About 1970, as a Senator, Mondale made a speech on the Senate floor that managed to pit space exploration against poor people, minorities, the environment, sick people, the elderly, and the homeless. It was a feat that has not been repeated in nearly forty years, even in the myriad debates concerning funding of NASA projects such as the space station.

It is very likely that the ploy will not work this time. People are more cynical than they were in 1970 about the promises politicians make to better their lives, usually with higher taxes. Support for space exploration, particularly President Bush's initiative to send people back to the Moon and beyond remains comfortably high. No other major candidate has joined Obama in overtly slashing public space spending.

Obama's proposal would seem to prove that Hillary Clinton, who is no great supporter of space exploration having also proposed delaying the return to the Moon, is right about one thing. Barack Obama is not ready to be President. Throwing out this proposal to slash NASA funding willy nilly without due regard to the consequences, real world or political, speaks to inexperience and ignorance unsuitable for anyone desiring high office.