The cutbacks at NASA may be worthwhile, they may not; I’ll let the space-policy wonks hash that out. What’s indisputable is that here’s an area of government spending that is often innovative and productive, and has a big economic impact in a swing state:
The local economic forecast tied to President Barack Obama’s proposed NASA budget keeps growing bleaker.
Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles’ retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.
That sum includes 9,000 “direct” space jobs and — conservatively speaking — 14,000 “indirect” jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.
To paraphrase the old New York Daily News headline, Obama to Suzanne Kosmas’s reelection chances: Drop dead.