Tag: Congress

The red tape of the space bureaucracy

1:13 pm

“An article in the Economist today has some chilling conclusions about the difficulties faced by the new commercial space companies.

Although the cost of developing new space vehicles, products and services is high, just as much of a burden can be imposed by such intangible expenses as regulatory compliance, legal fees and insurance premiums.

The article points out the heavy cost to these new space companies caused by insurance requirements and government regulation, including the ITAR regulations that restrict technology transfers to foreign countries. However, this paragraph stood out to me as most significant:

Then there is the question of vehicle certification. The first private astronauts and space tourists may soon take to the skies in new launch vehicles, and the FAA has initially agreed to license commercial spacecraft without certifying, as it does for aircraft, that the vehicles are safe to carry humans. The idea is that specific safety criteria will become apparent only once the rockets are flying and (though it is rarely admitted) an accident eventually happens. This learning period will keep costs down for makers of the new spacecraft, even if significant compliance expenses are likely when it is over. The exemption was meant to have expired last year and was extended to the end of 2015. Commercial space companies are understandably keen for it to be extended again. “In the dawn of aviation, planes had 20 to 30 years before significant legislation applied,” says George Whitesides, the boss of Virgin Galactic.

Back in 2004 I noted in a UPI column the problems caused by these regulations, even as they were being written. (I had also done something at the time that few reporters ever do: I actually read the law that Congress was passing.) Then I said,
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After warning repeatedly last year that the sequester would damage the economy, NBC now says “Nevermind.”

5:26 pm

Doing the work of the Democratic Party: After warning repeatedly last year that the sequester would damage the economy, NBC now says “Nevermind.”

It wasn’t just NBC. I can’t count the number of news sources and politicians that screamed “We’re all gonna die!” because sequestration was going to cut the federal budget a mere few percent. I said it then and I say it now: They were lying.

That news organizations participated in this lie however was particularly shameful. It didn’t take much research or thought to realize that these were lies. For NBC and other mainstream news organizations to not do that research tells us a great deal about how unreliable they are.

And by the way, remember the long lines threatened at the airports due to sequestration? We had those for about one day, and then things returned to normal. More evidence that it was all lying crap coming from this administration, forced upon travelers to make some dishonest political points, which were further aided and abetted by a lapdog press.

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The House Ways and Means committee request for information from anyone targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is apparently bearing fruit.

1:53 pm

The House Ways and Means committee request for information from anyone targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is apparently bearing fruit.

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, a member of Ways and Means, confirmed to The Washington Examiner on Thursday that the evidence being sent to the committee includes secret recordings with IRS officials. This information comports with legal sources who have clients who believe they were targeted by the IRS because they are politically active conservatives who opposed President Obama’s re-election.

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IRS official Lois Lerner will invoke the Fifth Amendment when she testifies to Congress.

1:13 pm

IRS official Lois Lerner will invoke the Fifth Amendment when she testifies to Congress about the IRS’s harassment of conservatives.

She has the right to do this, but this action puts the lie to the Obama administration claim that no laws were broken in the IRS scandal. Her lawyer very clearly knows that she risks prosecution for breaking the law, and that is why he is advising her to invoke the Fifth.

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New estimates of the 2013 federal deficit show it will be the lowest deficit since 2008.

9:40 am

Good news? New estimates of the 2013 federal deficit show it will be the lowest deficit since 2008.

The CBO claims that much of the reduction comes from new revenue, but I suspect that the real cause was sequestration, which actually forced real cuts in federal programs for the first time since Obama took office.

I put a question mark on the “good news” above in that the deficit will still be higher than $600 billion, and that spending is still out of control. This drop is merely the tiniest glimmer of hope in a black storm of disaster.

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Private space is winning

11:50 pm

Today I attended an space industry conference here in Orange County, California, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Unlike the Space Hackers conference which also occurred today and to which I was also invited, this was not a New Space get-together, but a standard aerospace event which included a lot of old time engineers from the big old-time companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Most of the talks today were engineering related. For example, one described in detail the engineering advantages of building ion engines and solar sails at the molecular level, nanotechnology to the max. Another talk, which I found astonishing and exciting, was an analysis of the orbital mechanics of getting to Mars. This analysis found that using constant acceleration as low as .01 G it would be possible to get to Mars in weeks, not years, and without the necessity of waiting for the perfect launch window. You could launch almost anytime. Though we don’t have engines that as yet can provide this much constant low acceleration, these numbers are not so high as to make it impossible. With some clever refinements, it might be possible to come up with propulsion systems capable of these constant Gs, and to do it in the near future. If so, it will open up the entire solar system to manned exploration very quickly. Not only will we be able to travel to the planets in a reasonable time, the constant Gs would overcome the medical problems caused by prolonged weightlessness.

It wasn’t these interesting engineering presentations that got my juices flowing however. Instead, it was presentation on public policy issues that completely surprised me and made me think the future of the American aerospace industry is really going in the right direction. This significant take-away was further reinforced by the audience’s reaction to my lecture in the evening.
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Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) says the federal government isn’t spending enough to implement Obamacare.

4:23 pm

Gee what a surprise: Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) says the federal government isn’t spending enough to implement Obamacare.

Even if the federal government was not spending money it doesn’t have and was in the black, there will never be enough money to fund this monstrosity. Too bad Reid and the rest of the Democrats couldn’t figure that out. (Or maybe they did and simply wanted the country to go bankrupt. I wonder.)

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Congress is considering exempting itself and its staffers from Obamacare.

11:13 am

Now Congress has found out what’s in it: Lawmakers are considering exempting themselves and their staffers from Obamacare.

If they think the law is too onerous for themselves, then maybe they might finally realize that it is too onerous for everyone, and repeal the damn thing. Unfortunately, such common sense is not likely to appear in Washington.

Update: The story above suggested the exemption was being pushed by both parties. This apparently is not entirely true. There does appear to be some common sense in Washington, at least among some on the Republican side, as indicated by Republican statements from both the House and Senate. As noted by Speaker John Boehner’s office,
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Since 2010 total government spending per household has exceeded what each household earns per year.

12:55 pm

The day of reckoning looms: Since 2010 total government spending per household has exceeded what each household earns per year.

In other words, even if the federal, state, and city governments took 100 percent of your income in taxes, they still wouldn’t get enough money to pay their expenses. And since government spending has continued to rise since 2010 amid a stagnant economy, this situation has worsened, not improved. Worse, in 2012 the public voted in favor of accelerating this situation by voting for more Democrats in the Senate, while keeping a spendthrift Democratic President in power.

We are going bankrupt. It is only a matter of time.

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