So it isn’t like the money isn’t there for universal healthcare in the US (and Canada and the US have approximately equal survival rates despite their different systems). Every American could be covered, doctors could be well paid (it’s the best paid profession in Canada), and every major and most minor procedures could be made “free” (paid for via taxes). And all this could be done for exactly as much as the US is currently spending on Medicaid and Medicare. It isn’t done because the American people *like* their current broken system. If they spoke up with disdain for it, it would be changed.

(My parents live in the US, and they pay 1500 dollars a month for basic medical insurance for themselves and my sister. Ridiculous.)

So it isn’t “we can fund healthcare or we can fund space”. No. The US can do both. It just needs to fix its fubbered healthcare system, decrease military spending to a more reasonable point (300 billion a year would be a good level), and increase the age of retirement by 3 measly years — and then everything will be fine.

I’m intrigued that whenever people are unhappy with money going to space exploration, the alternative suggested is either health or poverty relief.

Why should space exploration and health/poverty relief be mutually exclusive?

But happy.

Great to read this & well said’n'done BA.

@19. Nyetwerke: “I thank the two gentlemen Wolf and Schiff but I want to see it in writing and in voting.”

Agreed & we need to keep the pressure on to make sure they follow their words with the appropriate actions and votes.

@20. Solius :

Instead, I wonder… “imagine the Dept. of Health and Human Services with a 150% increase in budget”

In that case I’d guess the Admins would take a big pay rise and the medical companies would increase their prices for everything. (Cynical.)

You realise it doesn’t have to be either /or don’t you?

We can and are well advised to spend extra money on *both* space exploration and healthcare.

@17. Catalyst : “All I can say for sure is that if there was a little “Donate a dollar to NASA” box on my tax forms, I’d check it off every time. Twice, if I could get away with it.”

Me too & I’m not even American!

Imagine a NASA with 120 billion a year to spend instead of 18.

Instead, I wonder… “imagine the Dept. of Health and Human Services with a 150% increase in budget”

How many non-insured Americans could seek treatment for a chronic condition with that amount of cash?

Let’s go one further- end the War on American Poor and Blacks– the war on drugs– think what would happen if all those billions were instead spent on treatment!

I’ve yet to meet a junkie that wanted to be strung out.

Before anyone asks: yes, I’ve known a few. One of my best friends, and a noted string bender died from a heroin overdose. And I know that he didn’t want to be addicted.

Depending on whose numbers you believe the DoD budget is currently between 700 billion and three quarters of a trillion per year when wartime spending is factored in. In 2010 it was estimated at 1.2 trillion per year if you factored in long term research and long term equipment replacement costs (while still excluding costs related to veterans!). That estimate is believed to be pretty close to correct today as well.

Basically that’s the US paying for all the equipment destroyed by Iraqi sand. It wasn’t the religious and political terrorists, freedom fighting insurgents, or enemy soldiers that wore out the US military in Iraq, it was the dust storms and the bloody sand. Let that be a lesson as to what’s going to happen to our manned colonies on Luna and Mars . Hopefully preventative steps can be taken.

But let’s ignore the current wartime spending and the onetime replacement costs for all of that equipment lost in Iraq and – to a much lesser degree – Afghanistan. If we do that then the stable DoD budget for this year (not including wartime spending) falls to only ~550 billion dollars.

I assumed that 150 billion of that 550 billion is going to support intelligence operations (that’s probably a bit high, but ehhh), and then assumed that would never be touched for political reasons.

That leaves a remaining budget for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Airforce of ~400 billion. I said that we should reduce that by 1/4 – 100 billion dollars – and transfer that money to NASA (100 billion plus NASA’s current budget equals about 120 billion). I suspect that wouldn’t cause too much pain to the US Military. In fact, just the money going to the straight non-intelligence based military (300 billion) would be greater than the entire DoD budget of 12 years ago.

Heh. No wonder the US is broke:P. Going from spending 300 billion a year on their DoD to spending 1.2 trillion a year (including replacement and modernization costs) comes with a terrible price.