Newt, not Mitt, is right about the moon base

Mitt Romney said in the debate last night that he would fire an employee who came to him with an idea like Newt Gingrich's proposed lunar base.

He's wrong. He should do his research.

As I've pointed out many times, from an accounting point of view the Federal government has never spent money more wisely than on the original moon program. The growth it caused in the economy (yes, in Florida, but also all over the nation) resulted in tax revenues exponentially greater than the initial outlay. We're strapped for cash right now, but by all historical precedent, if it were possible to raise the necessary money without increasing an already unacceptable deficit even more radically than Barack Obama is already raising it, a program to establish a permanent base on the Moon and- even more so- to send a manned expedition to Mars would provide more effective stimulus to our lagging economy than almost anything else- and might even shrink the deficit in the long run.

When, as I hope, President Romney takes office next January, I strongly believe that he should reconsider his position.

HT: Drudge