Could the congress save NASA's Constellation program by increasing the taxes that you and I are paying?

1) Could they do it, and would you be willing to pay higher taxes to save the program?

2) When is the congress supposed to say its final statement regarding the program?Could the congress save NASA's Constellation program by increasing the taxes that you and I are paying?Could they do it? Certainly.



Will they do it? Certainly not. That is not their interest nor their priority. Their interest is to get re-elected, not to do anything that is beneficial for the nation.



Would I be willing to pay higher taxes to save the program? No. Because if I paid higher taxes, the program would be saved until the next emergency stimulus bill (perhaps 3 months downstream), at which time the program would again be canceled, while I would remain paying higher taxes to fund whatever congressional priority is in fashion at that time. I am already paying confiscatory taxes, while half the population pays none. Until such time as Congress has the courage to control its appetite for gigantic spending on social re-engineering for the benefit of everyone but me and my family, I will not support a tax increase; just a spending reduction.



In the same sense, you must understand that there is no such thing as a "final" statement when it comes to Congress. They simply do not have the courage to make such a statement. They will hide behind committees and special advisory groups as they reduce the NASA budget to virtually nothing, while simultaneously apportioning massive sums for temporary road improvements, socialized medicine, and permanent unemployment benefits.



Congress is largely made up of cowards.Could the congress save NASA's Constellation program by increasing the taxes that you and I are paying?
They could if they wanted to. The house recently tried to pass a bill that funded the Constellation program but cut almost all the money the president asked to be used to pay private U.S. companies to develop a private space craft to be used by NASA under contract, but I and others like me lobbied against it because I believe our only hope of achieving lower cost space travel is increased involvement of private commercial companies. The senate had already passed a bill that kept the president's requested funding for private space craft and cut constellation. It remains to be seen what kind of NASA funding bill congress as a whole will eventually pass, but I hope it would be the one canceling constellation and funding private space craft development. I am firmly convinced that companies like SpaceX can produce a better space craft at far lower cost and in less time than NASA can internally.



The one year appropriation for Constellation under the house bill would have been about 5 billion. That would amount to a cost of about $16 per person per year. Congress could either increase taxes by that much or go that much deeper in debt to pay for it.Could the congress save NASA's Constellation program by increasing the taxes that you and I are paying?I think no. Our country has massive financial problems and our politicians don't have the guts to insist that our rich citizens pay their fair share. NASA would be far wiser to focus on robotic missions that are so much cheaper and accomplish so much more.Could the congress save NASA's Constellation program by increasing the taxes that you and I are paying?
Don't get your hopes up. As much as id like to see observatories on the Moon, there are many other things that need to be fixed with taxes.Could the congress save NASA's Constellation program by increasing the taxes that you and I are paying?No. Taxes are going up regardless, and they WON'T be spent on NASA.