Blitzing Politicians

In the latest edition of The Space Review Alex Kirk provides an overview (Blitzing Capitol Hill) of last week's effort by space activists who came to Washington to lobby members of Congress to support the NASA budget at this critical time:

If NASA and its budget—which represents roughly one half of one percent of all federal spending, and little more than 10 percent of the recent hastily-passed economic stimulus package—are to survive the next administration, Congressional support will be critical.

I really think those stats are the key to building and maintaining public support for NASA funding, as I doubt very much that most people are aware of just how small a percentage of the federal budget is devoted to NASA. If you ask people what percentage of the federal government is devoted to NASA and they tell you it's probably around 5%, this provides an opportunity to shock them with the "less than 1%" figure and then you can ask them if they would support a funding increase.