pfiffle.
The Mars Rover. SIRTF the Spitzer Space Telescope (man, just can’t get used to the new name). Cassini-Huygens. WMAP. And let’s not forget the granddaddy of ‘em all, the Hubble.

It’s called science, Jay, and its what NASA does best. It’s when they piddle around in the manned missions-without-a-mission that they muck it up. (ISS, anyone?)

A trillion? You’re being kind. I read it was more like 7.

This has been debunked so many times by so many different sources (including several commenters on this site) I just no longer have the energy.

Are there unicorns in your world, Yo?

Uteri?

And the trillion dollars of bad swaps? How did those loans figure into it?

Yo mama!

You funny.

Wow. Talk about an oversimplification.

If not for the gov’t and their attempts to game the mortgage industry for social justice, we wouldnt’ be in this mess.

How can you have so much faith in an institution that has screwed up so much lately? Their lack of oversight and encouraging/pressuring of lenders to hand mortgages to unemployed crackheads is the main reason we’re in this mess.

The New Deal gave people jobs and a hope for the future (it also trained quite a few future officers like my grandfather in the Civilian Conservation Corps). I’d argue America would’ve been in no shape to fight WWII without FDR’s policies revitalizing the workforce and industry, and inspiring Americans to work hard for an actual paycheck.

WWII indeed spurred the American economy — massive military spending, technological development, women entering the workforce, and the GI Bill ensuring government-paid tuition for all vets.

I’m glad you agree with me that in times of severe economic crisis (such as the Bush/Republican Recession of 2008) government stimulus spending is a necessity to get the country by until the private sector works out its problems and gets its cash-flow in order.

Wow, did you forget to drink your crazy-juice today Jay?

NASA has had some very, very bad stretches. In fact, the single best chievement in space in the last few years was the X-Prize — which was private industry was given an incentive to find its own solutions.

And I’ll give Jaim his cheap thrills and point out that FDR’s programs did a great deal to mitigate the harm of the Depression, it took World War II to actually end it. The New Deal was essentially an endless stream of transfusions; the war was actually staunched the bleeding.

With GM, we have the government engaging in direct competition with private corporations. I wonder how long it will be before the government starts “cheating” and using its power to help GM? My first suspicion will be a push for more government agencies to buy GM vehicles over alternatives — especially Chrysler, which will apparently now be owned by Fiat.

J.

As if mobilizing and fighting WWII wasn’t the most massive act of Federal spending ever.