Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Obama eliminates NASA jobs & Space program, promises the Moon - Cincinnati, Ohio speech

Speaking at a campaign even in Cincinnati, Ohio on Monday, President Obama told his supporters that while "we believe in individual initiative and self-reliance..., there's some things we do together, and growing an economy is one of them... When we invested in the Hoover Dam... or the Internet, [or] sending a man to the moon -- all those things benefited everybody. And so that's the vision that I want to carry forward."

It's funny that the President would mention the Moon program, for indeed, in 2010, Obama decided to cancel the Constellation and Moon program that was launched in 2004 by President George W. Bush.

7000 Space Center employees have lost their jobs as a result of this decision, and the layoffs created a ripple effect which wiped out an additional 7000 jobs in the community and surrounding area.

In lieu of Mr. Bush's space program, the Obama administration offered up a new program to develop a commercial spacecraft - via private companies - that could transport astronauts into low Earth orbit. The administration estimated that the newly proposed program would create up to 1,700 jobs, which, somehow, would help alleviate the pain of losing the 7000 jobs at the Space Center and the additional 7000 jobs in the surrounding area.

Nice trade-off, Mr. President!

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