Is commercializing NASA the right thing to do?
As a strong fiscal conservative, I was interested in the president’s proposal to turn over much of the work that NASA does to “commercial” interest. We all know that in almost every case, private industry can do things better, faster and cheaper than our federal government. But with NASA receiving about half of 1% of the federal budget, I really don’t see any big savings to the country. Given the fact that these commercial interests have never actually launched a rocket, I can’t imagine why we would even consider letting them launch our astronauts into space.
But there is something to be said for cost savings. Under the president’s watch, the federal budget has gone out of control. So let’s take his plan for NASA and implement it where it can really save us some money. I propose that with all of the “commercial” airlines flying around the world every day that we eliminate the U.S. Air Force and turn the job over to these commercial interests. We could equip all U.S. airlines with fighter artillery and bombs and if a situation breaks out somewhere, we can just call on the nearest airliner to take care of the problem. With rising fuel costs, the airlines would welcome a little additional revenue.
The same can be done for the U.S. Navy which we can turn over to “commercial” cruise lines. I’m sure Carnival cruise ships could be reconfigured with whatever arms would be necessary to squelch any illegal activity on the high seas. If they got even a little of the Navy’s money, they could probably lower the cost of their cruises so that all Americans could afford to go on a cruise.
Let’s completely eliminate the Department of Homeland Security. That department never really has worked out too well. We’ll turn that work over to the U.S. Post Office. Postal employees go to every home, every office and every building in the country six days a week. Postal carriers could be retrained to look out for suspicious things and we could even give them a few extra canisters of mace, should they encounter a dangerous situation.
These cost savings could also be realized by all 50 states by eliminating their National Guard Divisions. We’ll turn that activity over to UPS. The folks in those brown trucks are everywhere and we could easily equip the trucks with proper weaponry for any situation. Neat thing about this idea is that the UPS folks are already in uniform.
By now I think we can all agree that the above ideas are a bit foolish, but really no more foolish than trying to commercialize NASA’s human space program. Let NASA do what it does best and give them the funds they need to accomplish that job! David Braun
Nassau Bay, Texas |
