NASA: National priority or government waste?
In these stark economic times, both politicians and the average family are looking for savings anywhere they can find them.
The congressional super-committee is looking for savings of $1.5 trillion on top of almost $ 1 trillion of cuts already agreed.
Many families are busy creating their own lists of spending priorities and items they can do without. This belt tightening has been in place almost since the Great Recession began in 2008.
It may strike some as unusual that the United States will spend $18.7 billion this year on space exploration, specifically on NASA – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Spending on NASA from 1958 to 2008 totaled a massive $471 billion.
In comparison, spending over this period by the National Science Foundation was about one quarter of NASA’s budget or $101.5 billion. In 2010, the NSF’s budget was $6.8 billion. The National Institutes of Health also received $30.5 billion in 2011.
In this era of increased austerity, some are questioning whether it is worthwhile to spend $18.7 billion on space exploration while Medicaid and other programs are cut. In the scientific community, others argue that the NSF and NIH produce more relevant scientific research and give more “bang for the buck”.
Most defenders of NASA refer to murky advances that somehow “benefit humanity” but the details are scant. A study from Chase Econometrics lists NASA’s benefits as the jobs created and taxes paid by employees.
Even when scientific benefits emerge from the program, some ask whether these could not have created through other programs like the NSF for much less.
What is your take? Is NASA spending worth it or should it be cut?
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