There is a huge problem with Washington, D.C. when it comes to setting the country's (and ultimately Guam's) fiscal priorities. We have thousands of unemployed workers here on island and millions around the mainland; graduating with a college degree is becoming more expensive and there is no guarantee that there will be a good paying job when a student graduates (both here and in the states); residents who have a tough time finding a job (and thus must be on welfare) are having to go through much stricter requirements (thanks to fiscal conservatives who deride welfare programs)...YET
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE BEING SPENT ON
1. sending rovers to Mars seeking out evidence of PAST life -
2. plans to send humans back to the Moon (Moon base)
3. plans to send humans to Mars
The same fiscal conservatives that wage constant war on programs that protect those who are most vulnerable = SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, WELFARE and who seek to lessen the importance of hard working public workers such as TEACHERS are the very same (i.e. Newt Gingrich and the Moon Base, et. al) who seek to continue to fund NASA with billions of dollars that could otherwise be spent on putting unemployed people back to work and thus off of publicly funded welfare programs. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/newt-gingrich-promises-moon-base-flights-mars-reality/story?id=15449425
We think that funding for NASA should only be enough to cover programs that have the protection of the people of Earth from space borne threats (asteroids, etc) in mind and that is it. At a time of continued high unemployment and sky rocketing prices of EVERYTHING...sending astronauts back to the Moon or to Mars is a luxury that we just can't afford at the moment.
