spayss:<br />Do you want to spend that dollar on state-of the-art equipped classrooms? Medicine for your arthritis? Better armor for your son in Iraq? Paying down the 8 trillion dollar debt. Research into alternative fuels? Cleaner air? A mission to Mars?<br /><br />Me:<br />These are excellent alternate ways to spend money and have been brought up in one form or another since the Apollo days. They are hard to compete with and if were going to direct funds to those efforts, (I can't believe that anyone would think government will make sure all this would happen if NASAs budgets are cut) government should lay out an explicit plan to do so. Then show the funds are being spent on these needs. Anything less makes the idea of cutting NASAs budgets for social needs...a false argument.<br /><br />We may as well give up human space flight. Why? Because we will always have a reason not to do it.<br /><br />Since the post Apollo cuts went into effect after 1973-74. We should already have state of the art classrooms, medicines. Can you, Guns, Nyal, and Gsus tell the rest of us where the billions of already cut NASA dollars went?<br /><br />Maybe if we focused more on peaceful pursuits instead of global adventurism for the sake of oil, American troops wouldn't have to die. Maybe some spinoff from NASA research could point us in the right direction for alternative energy.<br /><br />You, Guns, Nyal, and Gsus really believe the government is going to cut NASA and direct their funds to the causes you mentioned? <br /><br />This isn't about some pet project. In fact, I'll lay down a challenge. Anyone who can cut NASAs budget and show me where the cuts are applied, and that they were applied...I will withdraw my support for NASA human space flight although my only real support is in words.<br /><br />Hmmmm...cutting NASA out completely would blast that 8 trillion dollar debt down to 7.984 T dollars. I'm impressed already. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>