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Cato Daily Dispatch for August 26, 2003

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Blame NASA Bureaucratic 'Culture' for Shuttle Disaster
CBO Predicts Record-Breaking Federal Deficit
U.S., Allies Meet Ahead of North Korea Talks

Blame NASA Bureaucratic 'Culture' for Shuttle Disaster

"The destruction of space shuttle Columbia and the death of its seven astronauts were caused by a NASA culture driven by schedule, starved for funds and burdened with an eroded, insufficient safety program," reports The Associated Press.

"The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, in a wide-ranging analysis of decades of NASA history, said the space agency's attitude toward safety is little improved since the 1986 Challenger disaster, which also killed seven, and that without fundamental changes more tragedies will occur."

Space: The Free Market Frontier, edited by Cato Adjunct Scholar Edward Hudgins, includes essays by several leading experts, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who detail how the United States can move from the federally run, inefficient, and inaccessible space program to a free-market system.

"To move from the current situation of limited access to space and to truly make space a place for humans to work and play and live, it is useful to consider how we arrived at the current situation, what signs hold the promise of a commercial market future, and what policy changes might make space the next commercial market frontier," writes Hudgins. "The obvious way to open space to all is for NASA to back out of civilian space activities and let the private sector do what it does so well in other areas of the economy: reduce costs and develop new, innovative products and services."

CBO Predicts Record-Breaking Federal Deficit

"The federal government is heading toward a record $480 billion deficit in 2004 and will rack up red ink of almost $1.4 trillion over the next decade, according to the latest analysis by the Congressional Budget Office," reports The Associated Press.

"The nonpartisan budget office on Tuesday also confirmed earlier estimates that the federal deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 will be $401 billion, well above the previous record of $290.4 billion set in 1992."

Chris Edwards, Cato director of fiscal policy, hates that in the face of these record deficits, "Congress and the Bush administration are allowing federal discretionary spending to rise 12.4 percent in fiscal 2003 and at least 9.0 percent in fiscal 2004." Taxpayers cannot afford this "shocking expansion in the size of the federal government," says Edwards.

"The administration must reverse course by pursuing major spending cuts and opposing all program expansions, such as the Medicare drug benefit proposal."

In the Cato Handbook for Congress (PDF), Edwards offers several suggestions for budget reform, including discretionary spending caps and a balanced-budget amendment. "Both Congress and the administration must end their shortsighted jostling for more taxpayer cash," he writes. "Not only is the government running huge deficits again, but the looming explosion in entitlement costs demands that all aspects of the federal spending empire be overhauled."

U.S., Allies Meet Ahead of North Korea Talks

"North Korea mixed smiles with threats and China urged patience Tuesday as the United States and its allies huddled to coordinate their positions on the eve of talks over North Korea's nuclear crisis," according to Reuters.

"The two protagonists, North Korea and the United States, stand far apart ahead of the six-country talks that are a result of months of frantic diplomacy. Washington demands the unconditional and verifiable scrapping of Pyongyang's nuclear program before making concessions, while North Korea wants security guarantees before dismantling."

In "Options for Dealing with North Korea," Ted Galen Carpenter, Cato's vice president for foreign policy and defense studies, writes: "The crisis illustrates the folly of Washington's insistence on maintaining a military presence in East Asia. In a normal international system, North Korea's neighbors-South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia-would have to worry the most about Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and would take the lead in formulating policies to deal with them."

Carpenter argues that the United States should respond to North Korea by reducing the U.S. military presence in South Korea and Japan and by giving those countries the green light to begin developing nuclear weapons. Although additional nuclear proliferation may not be an ideal outcome, it is better than having American forces defending weak allies from an unpredictable, nuclear-armed North Korea, he concludes.

Wyatt Dubois, editor, wdubois@cato.org