Sdi 2010 Midterms Impacts Updates

Health Care Good – Space

Jason Rosenbaum, Deputy Director of Online Campaigns, Health Care for America Now, 2-23-2009,

http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2009/02/obamas-fiscal-responsibility-s.php "Obama’s Fiscal Summit and Healthcare”

As pointed out by others here and elsewhere, Medicare and Medicaid are in fact set to rise in cost dramatically, and this is indeed a problem. And it's not just Medicare and Medicaid. Our entire health care system is set to rise in cost, a cost that's projected to reach almost 20% of GDP by 2017 if current trends continue. So it's not just the federal government that has a problem. With one out of every five dollars in our economy writ large projected to be spent on health care, every person in this country has a problem. The cost of health care must be brought under control to claim fiscal responsibility, and not just the cost of Medicare and Medicaid but the cost of health care for everyone. So, how do we control costs? We control costs first and foremost by getting everyone in America affordable coverage with benefits that meet their needs. We do this by giving people a choice to keep their private health insurance plan or the option to buy into a public health insurance plan, filling in the gaps in private insurance so everyone can have coverage. When people are covered by insurance, they get the care they need, not just catastrophic care at the emergency room when their health problems become dire (which is much more expensive). This prevention lowers cost and improves health outcomes. As this chart from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows, if we can get our health care costs in line with other countries (the "Low Health Care Costs line) as opposed to our projected exponential growth, our budget deficit will stabilize. Fiscal responsibility therefore means controlling all health care costs, not just Medicare and Medicaid. President Obama understands this problem, and though it may require an upfront federal investment, in the long run it's the only way to use taxpayer money wisely.

Charles Miller, President of Space Policy Consulting, Inc., and Jeff Foust, editor and publisher of The Space Review, April 14, 2008, http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1106/1

Obviously, these long-term trends in Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are not sustainable, and our national leaders will be forced to do something about it. This is our point. A near-term fiscal crisis is emerging in the next decade, and solving it will be the responsibility of the next President of the United States and the US Congress. Recent history provides a taste of what NASA may be facing in the very near future. During the Bush Administration NASA has done reasonably well in terms of spending: its budget, in constant 2008 dollars, has increased from $16.3 billion in fiscal year 2001 (the last Clinton Administration budget) to $17.1 billion in fiscal year 2008. This 0.7% real increase per year, on average, is far short of the increases that many space advocates have been seeking, but it is better than what some other agencies have received during the same period. However, this small budget increase has taken place during a time when balancing the budget has not been a priority for either a Republican President or the U.S. Congress. By comparison, during the Clinton Administration, when both the Democratic White House and Republican Congress sought (and achieved) a balanced budget, NASA fared far worse: in constant 2008 dollars, its budget fell from $20 billion in fiscal year 1993 to $16.3 billion in 2001, a decline of nearly 20 percent. Considering the budgetary challenges created by the retirement of the baby boomers, the next graph may be a better guide to the austerity NASA will face in the years to come than its experience of the last few years. These fiscal pressures will force the next president—regardless of whoever is elected in November—to make some hard decisions in the years to come about discretionary spending. It is unrealistic to expect that NASA will somehow be immune to pressures to cut spending. A budget cut in the next Administration that is equivalent to last decade’s cut would result in reduction of NASA’s budget of over $3 billion per year. If that happens, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the current exploration architecture to continue in anything resembling its current form and schedule. It will be significantly delayed, radically altered, or even cancelled. Should that happen, is there a way to keep the Vision for Space Exploration alive?

Health Care Good – Space

Paul Spudis, Principal Investigator in the Planetary Geology Program of the NASA Office of Space Science, Solar System Exploration Division and Senior Professional Staff, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 8-4 2004, http://www.spudislunarresources.com/Opinion_Editorial/The%20Space%20Program%20and%20the%20Meaning%20of%20Life.htm

Marc Kaufman, science writer, Washington Post, December 4, 2006

In Griffin's big-picture view, the stakes in space are high -- which helps explain why he is so driven about return to manned lunar exploration and beyond. Not only are there major national security issues involved -- the country relies on space-based defense like no other nation -- but the NASA administrator said the United States can remain a preeminent civilization only if it continues to explore space aggressively. If the United States pulls back, Griffin said, others will speed ahead. Russia and China have sent astronauts into low-Earth orbit, and India, Japan and the Europeans all have the technical ability to do the same now -- and far more in the future. International cooperation has been ingrained into the government's thinking about space, but the United States and others remain committed to manufacturing their own rockets and space capsules and will be looking for international cooperation only once they are on the moon or Mars or some asteroids in between. "I absolutely believe that America became a great power in the world, leapfrogging other great powers of the time, because of its mastery of the air," Griffin said. "In the 21st century and beyond, our society and nation, if we wish to remain in the first rank, must add to our existing capacities . . . to remain preeminent in the arts and sciences of space flight.”