Thread: Does Anyone Here Think NASA Gets Enough Money?

I'm actually serious about this question: Does anyone here think that NASA gets enough budgeted money (~0.55% of the federal budget - $17.2 billion for FY2009, pretty much THE smallest of any federal agency) to carry out everything they're supposed to? This includes the ISS, going back to the moon with humans by 2020, all the space telescopes it operates, all the ground-based telescopes it operates, robotic exploration (e.g., Mars Phoenix, MER, Cassini, New Horizons, etc.), federally mandated asteroid surveys, monitoring global climate change, all the Earth-based research/monitoring, and all the science grants it awards (that fund researchers like yours truly ;) )?Do you think NASA's budget should be larger? Do you think NASA should have a narrower focus in terms of what the agency is actually supposed to accomplish? Note that those two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and if you answer "yes" to the latter, what do you think should happen to what gets cut?*Edited to Add:* According to Wikipedia, NASA costs the average taxpayer $57.10/yr, or 15¢/day.

It's ridiculously small, and should be an order of magnitude greater in my opinion, but...
I also don't want any cut in the Defense budget; Tom doesn't want any cut in Education; Dick says bridges/roads infrastructure desperately needs more money; Harry says National Park funding is a disgrace; and none of us wants to pay more taxes. And we all have an equal vote.
I wish that on tax returns, where they ask if you want $5 to go to the Presidential Campaign matching funds, they would also ask if you want $100 to go to NASA. AND, they should sell tickets for a national lottery, once a year, to ride the shuttle on a brief mission, (where you also have to help with experiments).
BTW, don't blame former President Bush- NASA's budget increased over 20% during his time in office. It was slashed by a quarter under Clinton.