I know some people will view this as a stupid question.
Well, you DID came here on your free will, right?
Maybe a more useful way of submitting your question is: What is the price of NOT having a space program?
I (as a tax payer) am putting money into the space program so I should question where its going or if it should be going.
OK then, where should the money invested in space programs should be invested? What do YOU suggest? And how much money do you think you'll gain from the sudden shutdown of it?
Which companies are out there in the business of doing climate and Earth science research? And how much money are markets willing to invest on to have long-term estimates on climate tendencies -- with an eye on evaluating whether it's worthwhile to invest on certain cultures or countries?
And by the way, how do you plan on motivating kids about going into science and engineering?
You may not notice much difference during a 4 year government or even a 8 year government -- but how will you motivate kids into going to science and engineering with such thing as NASA gone? And how much money (from your taxes!) will you be willing to put into to help ensure that the US of A has enough "critical mass" to maintain a steady supply of engineers (in many different areas) without having to hire individual specialists from foreign nations or having to buy from entire foreign companies?
If you plan on shutting down science centers, you must have a plan to replace them, right?
How much money from your taxes are you willing to spend to ensure that private companies provide technological products at reasonable prices? What would be the increase in price of a thing such as, say, cochlear implants, http://www.patents.com/us-4063048.html http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technol…
if they were exclusively developed by a private company which would support not only the price of developing and selling them but also the years of research (with several trials and erros in the meantime)?