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NASA

Talk about governmental waste, in my opinion the biggest wastrel of billions of taxpayer dollars is still the ubiquitous NASA program. That was until the war on terrorism finally took priority. Each time NASA launches another space vehicle the cost exceeds a billion dollars and the 2007 budget, at this time, is a projected 16.6 billions and we know this figure is prone to unpredictable cost overruns. True, it costs far more money to send a manned vehicle into space than to build a bridge spanning frigid Alaskan waters to a virtually uninhabited inland. Each time NASA has a successful launch, more than a billion dollars is spent and goes up in rocket propellant and billowing smoke clouds. The International Space Station project would be a financial farce if the cost had not risen into many billions and there is no foreseeable schedule for its completion. However, the NASA program could reduce its size by half and still be able to perform the same function and continue to furnish employment for thousands of ancillary businesses and their employees. What has this statement have to do with pork barrel projects? It is almost unbelievable that our Princes of Pork allowed all that money to escape their claws and be wasted on our future, instead of installing the Robert C. Byrd International Space Station to which future generations of world citizens train their telescopes on yet another wonder hovering protectively over Byrdland. A glittering spectacle to feed Senator Robert C. Byrd’s gigantic ego and to crown all his other pork boondoggles!