Way too often, I hear phrases like, “If we can put a man on the moon, then we should be able to accomplish some other great feat.”

For example, a quick Google search for this phrase in the last week resulted in 171 pages, which included the following:

Marvin Eisenstein leaving a comment on a NY Times blog:

If we can put a man on the moon I am sure we can solve the health care problem.

Kent Halla, in a letter to the Silver City Sun-News:

Why, if we can put a man on the moon can we not cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.?

An anonymous comment in a forum asks:

If we can put a man on the moon in less than a decade, could we not help repair the only planet we’ll ever know by showing the same dedication and bearing the same burden of common purpose?

But the problem is, we can’t put a man on the moon.  According to a Washington Post article, “NASA doesn’t have nearly enough money to meet its goal of putting astronauts back on the moon by 2020.”

Our government no longer has the ability to put a man on the moon.  Although President Obama appointed a special Human Space Flight Plans Committee, the committee found that the governement would not commit enough resources or dedication to put man on the moon anytime in the next decade.

So we are stuck with a government who can’t do what they did 40 years ago: put a man on the moon.  I don’t know why they think they can take on the governement, make cars more efficient, cure cancer, fix healthcare, etc.  We pretty much have a government that is incapable of doing much of anything other than consuming tax dollars.