Good post Steve! Jeff At 20:41 -0700 9/2/06, Dillinger, StephenX C wrote: >The national debt is a big yawner from an economic perspective. >Compared to the size of the US economy it's not that significant. > >As for spending priorities, Congress passes a budget, not the President. >If you disagree with the spending choices made by the US government it's >not the executive that controls the purse strings. With a relatively >weak Bush administration that's even more true today. > >Outsourcing is an issue, but it's not a political one. Today's CEOs are >pressured for short term gains and that means out sourcing to cheaper >labor markets. Personally, I think US workers can out compete and out >innovate anyone, but obviously corporate American disagrees. In 10 or >20 years, after today's companies have trained up a generation of Indian >and Chinese engineers and programmers through out sourcing and the H-1B >visa program they will find a whole new crop of competitors that they >have created. They're not stupid, I suspect they are fully aware of >this but believe their hands are tied. > >Finally, the size of the NASA budget compared to virtually any other >spending program is miniscule. That doesn't make it any less >vulnerable. If you don't like it write your congressman. What we as >amateur astronomers consider stupid spending choices make perfect sense >if politicians don't think anyone cares about them. >Steve -- Jeff Hopkins HPO SOFT Counting Photons http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html Hopkins Phoenix Observatory 7812 West Clayton Drive Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A. www.hposoft.com -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.