I love space exploration and technology as much as the next guy but as adults we need to look at our budget and spend what we have wisely. If your "company" is a a gagillion in debt, you have to decide if the company sponsored car racing team is the best use of your money.
IMO, the space program is a combination of bread and circus and defense industry welfare. The space station was a political tool to keep Russian scientists busy doing something "good" vs working for some evil dictator, etc.
I think a lot of this stuff would go away if people actually got to check off what you wanted to pay for:
- Would you like to donate money to the space program? +$19.40
- Would you like to remove the inheritance tax on people inheriting more than $1 million? + $10.33
- Would you like to subsidize ethanol production? +$32.45
This comes off as pejorative but you'd have links to more information to help people decide what they wanted to fund. When consumers are disconnected from the actual cost of things, they tend to make decisions as if someone else is paying.
-Chris