Bush Assails Naysayers on Mars Mission : Likens Congressional Attitude on Priorities to Critics of Columbus

President Bush lashed out today at members of Congress who say sending Americans to Mars is less important than other spending priorities. He likened the critics to the “naysayers” of Christopher Columbus.

Touring NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Bush criticized the House Appropriations subcommittee for voting last week “to pull the plug on this historic undertaking” by axing $300 million in seed money Bush had requested for the project.

Bush wants to return Americans to the moon and to land a manned space flight on Mars within 30 years. He has never suggested where total funding for the project would be found.

“Some say the space program should wait, that we should only go forward once the social problems of today are completely solved,” Bush said at the space center. “But history proves that attitude is self-defeating. Had Columbus waited until all the problems of his time were solved, the timbers of the Santa Maria would be rotting on the Spanish coast to this day.”

The President said American schoolchildren reading about Columbus’ doubters have “(shaken) their heads in disbelief that these naysayers could have been so shortsighted.”

“We must not let the children of the future shake their heads at our behavior,” he said. “History tells us what happens to nations that forget how to dream. The American people want us in space.”

Last week, however, the House Appropriations subcommittee that handles the National Aeronautics and Space Administration slashed the $300 million from its budget draft.

Bush, campaigning in Alabama and North Carolina for Republican officeholders seeking reelection, took time off for the trip to the space center.

Bush stumped in Alabama for first-term Gov. Guy Hunt and in North Carolina for Sen. Jesse Helms.

In Huntsville, the President headlined a reception to help Hunt, who is considered in good shape as he faces the winner of a Tuesday Democratic primary runoff.

Bush used that occasion to make a pitch for the proposed constitutional amendment to bar flag burning and for his anti-crime package, which Congress has completely overhauled.