Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 420 posts

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#111

Post by borvo »

alistairSH wrote: post #47
hackyhacky wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a balanced budget is your goal, only two steps are required: reduce military spending, increase taxes. No need to cut research. In practice the current budget bill is wildly unbalanced and will vastly extend our debt, despite extensive cuts to important programs.

We could zero out the military budget and that still doesn't get us anywhere close to balanced. Even cutting 100% of discretionary spending barely does the job. We either need massive cuts in mandatory spending (fundamental changes to social contract) or increased revenue (politically not viable). There's also near zero evidence we actually need a balanced budget for a healthy economy.

There's some tipping point where it's too much. For example, when the interest on the debt >> defense spending. Agree it doesn't need to be fully balanced, debt is a useful tool.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#112

Post by TimorousBestie »

msgodel wrote: post #79
searine wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of cutting cancer research or Nasa, maybe tax the rich? Wild idea, I know.

Tariffs are a tax on luxury consumption so he's doing that too. And once again people are mad and trying to cut off their nose to spite their face.

It’s true that one can design tariffs to target luxury consumption specifically, and that’s been done in the past.

That’s not what is being done by this admin, however. AI-generated tariff rates on 2-letter ISO country codes are not targeted in any meaningful sense.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#113

Post by simpaticoder »

Theodores wrote: post #92
davidw wrote: post #31

Well, yes, that's the point. Authoritarians want to consolidate power and loot wealth, not improve things or make the world a better place.

It is the art of the deal with Trump and I would say that he is a narcissist rather than authoritarian. Trump has a massive ego and I would have expected him to want the biggest rockets, and to pain them gold. If he did then I would denounce him for spending money on space when America has trillions of debt. I don't disagree with him on everything he says just because he said it. So, with space, my honest take is tha…

>Trump has a massive ego and I would have expected him to want the biggest rockets, and to pain them gold.

Sure, but he has to weigh the cost of funding intellectual elites against the benefit of what they can make for him. His base wants smaller government and doesn't want intellectuals. So, the move is to defund NASA and fund a military parade on his birthday. This undermines the future, but the future past 3.5 years is not his problem.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#114

Post by WinstonSmith84 »

potato3732842 wrote: post #67
consumer451 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a thread here a few months back, I said that one good thing about a new social media platform was that it was full of scientists and journalists. Someone asked, ~"what is about those two groups that you like?" I had to think about it for a minute, but the reply was ~"neither group is perfect, but it's their actual job to find and present the truth." I have no idea why it took me so long to realize that this is why…

>~"neither group is perfect, but it's their actual job to find and present the truth." And let me guess, the cops' job is to protect and serve? The situation is both more simple and less simple than that. Journalists and scientists effective top priority is to serve their employers. Sure they want to report the news and shape truth in the same way that cops want to catch real criminals but all of these people are emp…

you're mistaking journalists for propagandists. It's an easy mistake to do though, true journalists are rare in the world.

Scientists are a problem to authoritarians simply because they are educated and will likely refute the bs of politicians, let alone authoritarians.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#115

Post by api »

pu_pe wrote: post #83

The US is actively choosing to become completely reliant on private providers for access to space, which at this point boils down to SpaceX and Boeing. Both seem unreliable for different reasons. I just cannot see it as anything else than a blunder.

The blunder is choosing only two and including Boeing at all.

It should be SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Blue Origin, and maybe soon Stoke Space.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#117

Post by amanaplanacanal »

msgodel wrote: post #68
nemomarx wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raise taxes then.

Sorry I thought tariffs would result in our immediate destruction.

There are other kinds of taxes, you know. Or maybe you don't.

Re: Trump's NASA cuts would destroy decades of science and wipe out its future

#119

Post by aga98mtl »

pu_pe wrote: post #83

The US is actively choosing to become completely reliant on private providers for access to space, which at this point boils down to SpaceX and Boeing. Both seem unreliable for different reasons. I just cannot see it as anything else than a blunder.

US rockets were always made by private providers like SpaceX or Boeing.
Post reply on HN