NASA To Continue Funding Canceled Ares Project Until March

wooferhound passes along this quote from the Orlando Sentinel: "Thanks to congressional inaction, NASA must continue to fund its defunct Ares I rocket program until March — a requirement that will cost the agency nearly $500 million at a time when NASA is struggling with the expensive task of replacing the space shuttle. About one-third of that money — $165 million — will go to Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, which has a $2 billion contract to build the solid-rocket first stage for the Ares I, the rocket that was supposed to fill the shuttle's role of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station. ... The odd scenario, in which NASA is throwing money at a canceled rocket program but can't fund a modernization program, is because of several twists in the legislative process that started a year ago and came to a head this month. At the root of the problem is a 70-word sentence inserted into the 2010 budget — by lawmakers seeking to protect Ares I jobs in their home states — that bars NASA from shutting down the program until Congress passed a new budget a year later. That should have happened before the Oct. 1 start of the federal fiscal year. But Congress never passed a 2011 budget and instead voted this month to extend the 2010 budget until March — so NASA still must abide by the 2010 language."

Re:NASA modernization program?

[Stenchwarrior]

I'm not sure you meant to use the word "welfare". I've been on both ends of that spectrum: On welfare and paying into the system that supplies the money. And it's a complete fucking racket, for sure, but one thing it doesn't help is The Rich. Go down to your local welfare office and look around the waiting room and tell me how many "rich" people you see down there. Maybe you meant that the rich get so many tax breaks and incentives that come out of the same government money that welfare does, but I promise you that welfare wouldn't suffer if that pool dried up. If you were to cut even one recipient's food stipend by $5/month you would have an all-out riot on your hands...those guys don't mess around. Instead, they will take money away from Social Security, medical research and, yes, NASA.

Re:NASA modernization program?

[dasunt]

He's just bitching because the people who pay 90% of the taxes get a few breaks here and there. Apparently, if you're part of the small percentage of the population who actually keep the country running, you shouldn't get any special treatment. That's his idea of "fairness".

If there wasn't a large wealth disparity in the US (Gini index for reference [wikipedia.org]), perhaps the majority of taxes wouldn't come from such minority of people.

Probably that wasn't the fix you were looking for though...

Re:NASA modernization program?

[Ragzouken]

This is exactly the problem with the rich. They genuinely believe that their wealth is evidence that they are part of a minority of people who work harder and are superior to the rest. Some people get lucky, and most people don't. I really have trouble believing that anybody, rich or otherwise, is working a million dollars harder than the average man.

Re:NASA modernization program?

[c6gunner]

This is exactly why you'll never be rich.

Re:NASA modernization program?

[mcgrew]

Those LINK cards don't benefit the poor, they benefit the poor's employers -- WalMart, McDonald's, etc, who aren't forced to pay their employees a living wage, because Uncle Sam kicking in a stipend. Better thay should raise the minimum wage so that a man working 40 hours a week could feed his family.

Section eight housing helps landlords at the expense of the poor; the poor tenant is paying $200 a month rent for a house or apartment that might get $250 or $300 on the open market, while the landlord is collecting another $300 or $400 from the government. This drives up rents for everyone, the poor included, while the landlord gets twice to three times what he would get if it weren't for Section 8.

TIF financing that local governments pay to get industry in depressed areas also go to the rich.

Then there's the pork I originally mentioned -- money for a project that's been cancelled is nothing but welfare, and the rich get every penny of it.

The poor get very little at all from any level of government, the rich get damned near everything.