Ah... although Bush has not given realistic deadlines and budget to NASA for the want to push space exploration, realize that this should actually help the economy more than anything else you could debate here. Like it or not, inflation happens, and it always will. The Apollo missions drove increases in technology creation, especially in terms of computing... the robotics and computing power necessary for future missions, as well as finding materials that are resistant enough to create a base on the Moon OR Mars will vastly improve practical technology back here on Earth. The positives on economy will be enormous.
Then again, this time we're not the only ones who could do it, as Europe has aspirations to put people on Mars by 2033 and China is the new Russia to compete with (though they are very far behind the US and Europe, they are actually concentrating on it while we sit around like losers and say "let's fix the Earth instead of leaving it! it's too expensive!"). This last statement is off topic, but I wish people would finally be honest with themselves and realize that we need to leave this planet, we will overpopulate and use up all resources, we need other places... and trying to fix it now will do nothing unless you restrict population growth somehow and tell everyone to stop drinking water, using fossil fuels, and stop using pollutant technology (which is a necessity for how advanced we are). Then again, even all of that will do nothing to reverse the problems, just slow the inevitable. Bush is not just some fool wanting to boost popularity (although that's no doubt a part of it)... he's on the right track, as misaligned his views of how to go about it are. Anyway, no need to respond to that stuff unless you want a new topic, just pointing it out and not to forget there are other factors to economy than recessions and inflations and deflations and currency values and so forth.
Then again, this time we're not the only ones who could do it, as Europe has aspirations to put people on Mars by 2033 and China is the new Russia to compete with (though they are very far behind the US and Europe, they are actually concentrating on it while we sit around like losers and say "let's fix the Earth instead of leaving it! it's too expensive!"). This last statement is off topic, but I wish people would finally be honest with themselves and realize that we need to leave this planet, we will overpopulate and use up all resources, we need other places... and trying to fix it now will do nothing unless you restrict population growth somehow and tell everyone to stop drinking water, using fossil fuels, and stop using pollutant technology (which is a necessity for how advanced we are). Then again, even all of that will do nothing to reverse the problems, just slow the inevitable. Bush is not just some fool wanting to boost popularity (although that's no doubt a part of it)... he's on the right track, as misaligned his views of how to go about it are. Anyway, no need to respond to that stuff unless you want a new topic, just pointing it out and not to forget there are other factors to economy than recessions and inflations and deflations and currency values and so forth.