Budget Blaster

Since I had regarded Rep. Dana Rohrabacher as a star pupil in Professor Gingrich’s anti-tax, anti-spending school of government, I was shocked to see that Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) is proposing spending $100 million of taxpayer money on the development of a new rocket, the X-33 (“Rohrabacher Seeks $100 Million for Reusable Rocket,” May 17).

Knowing how principled Rohrabacher is, and how devoted to budget-cutting, I’m sure that the fact that much of the $100 million may go to Huntington Beach has nothing at all to do with his proposal; so I am puzzled. I would have expected him to say that government bureaucrats should not be involved in making decisions on new technology: Surely we can trust free enterprise to develop any rockets that are necessary once regulatory and tort reform are accomplished.

Rohrabacher must realize that the Constitution does not list rocket-making among the responsibilities of the federal government. So I have a suggestion: If the Congress is going to allocate taxpayer funds to rockets, it should be in the form of block grants to the states, so they can develop their own rockets as they see fit.

PAUL C. EKLOF

Costa Mesa