Big Bad Congressmen Afraid of the Dark

History repeats itself...In 1974, public spending cuts instigated by Gerald Ford led to Congress cutting all funding for the telescope project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope#Quest_fo...

And yet, it eventually worked itself out, we got the telescope in a scaled back fashion, and some of the best science of the past 2 decades in astronomy.

Do write your congressman or woman about this and remind them how short sighted they are being (if you're in the US).

Cutting the budget for an orbiting telescope does not proceed from obscurantism.

The federal government of the United States is $14 trillion in debt. Well-nigh irresistible power blocs have made the largest line items untouchable. The Congresscritters have to do something, so they cut everything else. Thundering about "Science" from the pulpit does not change any of this.

We are going to keep doing what we've been doing until we can't do it anymore.

The project is 4X over budget, 4 years late, and getting worse. Something must be changed.

Just imagine if this was a private project!