yournamehere

I grew up with heroes such as Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, and the rest of the original Mercury Program astronauts. I've always thought space exploration was important in expanding mankind's horizons, both literally and philosophically.

It seemed to work just fine (not perfectly; but fine) without some rich CEO and his inner circle making a ton of profit off it, raising the costs.

Privatizing space exploration will end up just like what always happens - the investors and upper management will grow rich from the U.S. taxpayers' investment. And if it ever starts losing money, guess who will have to pick up the slack while they all bail with their golden parachutes? Isn't it enough that it is already a cash cow for the biggest defense contractors?

If you want to cut spending, how about a little oversight on the biggest drain on our budget - defense spending. We spend $1 trillion a year (more than the 13 next-highest spending countries combined) on equipment and personnel that are neither needed nor wanted; spread all over the world. If we just cut the Pentagon's budget by a mere 15%, we could completely pay for free education and health care for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Haven't we learned from Blackwater, Halliburton, et al what happens when you privatize war - the G.I. on KP duty has been replaced by independent contractors making six-figure salaries.

The 2011 budget allows for an 6.8% increase in military spending. This increase alone is 3 times more than NASA's total yearly budget.

Why spend trillions of dollars building an empire that will eventually be repossessed by the Chinese anyway?

__________________
If you want to avoid 95% of internet spelling errors:
"If your ridiculous pants are too loose, you're definitely going to lose them. Tell your two loser friends over there that they're going to lose theirs, too."
It won't hurt your fashion sense, either.