NASA and Space Exploration Funding

In an article I read recently the author talked about how NASA might not end up getting their full funding for the future of space exploration.  This could lead to the discoveries of space by different countries such as China or Russian who are going to be in space in the near future.  The American debt is huge and the government is trying to find ways to cut 1.2 trillion dollars out of the national debt.  The government doesn’t have money to be funding the NASA program.  Priorities like the James Webb Space Telescope and long-planned missions to retrieve rock samples from Mars are at risk to be delayed badly by budget related problems.  By cutting NASA this could lead to missing out on important finds in space some say.  I believe this is true, other countries are now going to be the first to find the new and what’s beyond in our world.  This kind of sucks for the United States because of how our reputation has always been good, but now we won’t be the top dog for space exploration; we will be overrun by either China or Russia.  Our government needs to come up with funds to explore space exploration alongside these other countries and discover this world together.  President Obama proposed funding NASA at 18.7 billion dollars in his proposed fiscal 2012 budget.  Which is about 280 million, or 1.5 percent more than the agency got in fiscal 2011.  On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled senate approved 17.9 billon dollars for the space agency.  This is astounding to me because they cut out a lot of money that they proposed for NASA, but still the money they are offering is better than nothing.  A lot of the money that goes to NASA goes to the hundreds of employees they hire.  However, they do not hundreds of employers; NASA just needs the bare minimum.  Overall, I hope to see NASA get their correct funding to achieve great success in space in the near future.