Some House members want to increase NASA's budget

House budget writers signaled Wednesday they will try to increase NASA 's budget for next year, warning that President Bush 's spending request would leave the aerospace agency unable to fully conduct its ...

[David Gann]

I for one would be happy to pay a few extra dollars a year to support NASA. I was so excited when I heard about the Constellation program but it hasn't really been funded well. I hope congress will find a way to pay NASA to do what it's being asked.

[Mike Fazan]

Budget increase for NASA? You've got to be joking! The reason why the "good" programs at NASA are cash-strapped is that most of the budget is being spent on sending civil servant astronauts to the Moon and reliving Apollo.

This is unbelievable, especially when we're spending billions every day on Iraq. The time to have increased NASA budget was during the 1990s.

I vote NO to further knee-jerk support for NASA. We need to focus government spending on truly important issues.

[Brian O Halloran]

NASA's budget is just 0.5% of the Federal budget - given this paltry share, they do some pretty amazing things. NASA is long overdue a proper budget increase - the Pentagon, NIH, NSF etc have long enjoyed increases, so why not NASA?
As for sending astronauts to the Moon and further afield, that's what an exploration agency SHOULD be doing, instead of being aimlessly stuck in LEO. One of the biggest errors of the US was to abandon the Apollo infrastructure - it is only now that particular mistake is being rectified, but on a tiny budget. It pains me to see people like Mike and Barack Obama pick upon NASA and raid its already meager budget to fund social programs. If you want to fix social issues with government funding, either raise taxes - or strip the level of funding going to the DoD. Neither will happen, sadly - leaving NASA as a soft target for those who should know better.

[Burkeyman]

Yes, by all means increase NASA's budget. But also support the goal of returning to the moon and then to Mars. Part of why the public has not become excited is they never see or heard much tangible evidence we're really serious about going back. I think NASA should hire a PR firm to improve their image especially to younger people. I also beleive stability in NASA's budget is essential for improved aeronautics research as well as human space exploration beyond Earth orbit.