Fall of NASA the End of American Greatness?

I know the “end of American greatness” thing bothers some people, and I’m certainly hoping I am wrong about thinking that way when I read through the news of the day and the political paralysis in Washington.

So while we struggle to fix those things like roads and bridges and overcrowded airports and our aging rail system, it strikes me that a fine example of our great decline, if you will, is that fact that if out astronauts are to head into space, they have to do so aboard a Russian rocket.

Wow . .  we have no space program, and the $35 billion NASA is looking to spend on its new rocket program will probably never get through Congress. (One wonders if anything will get through Congress.) It certainly is an end to an era. Can we, in this divisive political environment, develop and complete major national-interest projects that benefit and rebuild the U.S. and put Americans to work?

Bridges and highways across the nation are deteriorating and will fail, our power grid is largely inadequate and fragile, our rail system is fragmented and aging, and our power plants are old and inefficient. Can we not develop a plan of maintenance and construction that keeps our infrastructure new and safe?

Certainly not the entire answer by any means. We need to end incentives and subsidies for corporations moving operations overseas. We need to stop subsidies for bad programs like ethanol production (which add 85 cents to each gallon of ethanol, spike feed costs for cattle), and create enterprise zones in cities that can grow and foster a wide cross-section of businesses.

We need to do all this without trashing fair and reasonable environmental restraint. This seems to be an ongoing theme for Republicans, even though I doubt these regulations actually cost jobs. I like clean water and don’t like toxins scattered across the amber waves of grain. Weakening even current regulations is a major long-term mistake. It sounds good in the 30-second sound bite, but politicians are politicians and what they say isn’t supposed to make sense . . . it’s designed to play to their political base and get them votes. Trashing the environment under the guise that those regulations cost jobs sounds good. But it’s wrong and wrong-headed.

So let’s put it all on the table and figure out how we can start to climb out of this hole. Make it clean and clear, oversee it so we don’t waste the amounts we’ve wasted every time the government spends money on projects. (Corporations seem to be able to do this with their projects, after all.)

It’s time to start thinking about what’s best for the country, not what’s best for Washington and the often brain-dead politicians who fill those majestic buildings.