Author Topic: What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?  (Read 9066 times)

Offline RonM

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Re: What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?
« Reply #20 on: 03/19/2017 12:41 pm »
NASA's budget is 0.5% of the Federal budget.

OK, that number is from FY2014 (for some reason Wikipedia has not updated the numbers since then). This years budget is $3760B. That means NASA's budget of $19.1B is 0.508%, so still holding steady.

http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/l/121/2018-Estimate

You're looking at the total Federal budget. Most of the budget is mandatory spending and the budget process is fighting for what's left over.

Mandatory spending is about 70% of the budget, leaving only 30% for discretionary spending (defense, education, NASA, etc.). Subtract out nearly 57% of discretionary spending for defense and that leaves only around 13% of the total budget for everything else. Of that small slice of the pie, NASA gets about 3.9%. That's a pretty high commitment, indicating Congress isn't going to get rid of NASA as long as the money keeps coming in.

Offline Robotbeat

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Re: What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?
« Reply #21 on: 03/19/2017 12:50 pm »
Mandatory spending programs like Social Security and Medicare, the biggest mandatory spending categories, are funded separately with separate revenue sources. Doesn't make sense to include them in this discussion.
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Offline RonM

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Re: What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?
« Reply #22 on: 03/19/2017 01:16 pm »
Mandatory spending programs like Social Security and Medicare, the biggest mandatory spending categories, are funded separately with separate revenue sources. Doesn't make sense to include them in this discussion.

That's why I brought it up. Saying NASA only gets 0.5% of the budget is based on the total budget, including mandatory spending. NASA's share of discretionary spending closer to 1.7%.

Offline tdperk

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Re: What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?
« Reply #23 on: 03/19/2017 05:19 pm »
Quote
What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?

Nothing but what is so catastrophic the effort to announce the cancellation is not itself a relative misuse of resources.

Offline Rocket Science

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Re: What do you think would result in NASA's cancellation?
« Reply #24 on: 03/19/2017 05:33 pm »
NASA's budget is 0.5% of the Federal budget.

OK, that number is from FY2014 (for some reason Wikipedia has not updated the numbers since then). This years budget is $3760B. That means NASA's budget of $19.1B is 0.508%, so still holding steady.

http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/l/121/2018-Estimate

You're looking at the total Federal budget. Most of the budget is mandatory spending and the budget process is fighting for what's left over.

Mandatory spending is about 70% of the budget, leaving only 30% for discretionary spending (defense, education, NASA, etc.). Subtract out nearly 57% of discretionary spending for defense and that leaves only around 13% of the total budget for everything else. Of that small slice of the pie, NASA gets about 3.9%. That's a pretty high commitment, indicating Congress isn't going to get rid of NASA as long as the money keeps coming in.
I guess the question is how is the money coming in if it is "deficit- spending"? Maybe if the 1% actually paid what they should compared to "Joe the plumber"...
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
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