Space.com reported that Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) have harshly criticized a budget report that was leaked to the Wall Street Journal. They blame President Obama for over-inflating the budget that NASA is still preparing to present.
The source of the leaked budget plan was not revealed in the article written by Andy Paztor of the WSJ. There are strange misquotes in the article, one of which reported that the recent estimate by accounting firm Booz Allen Hamilton found that the budget was severely overestimated, when it in fact it found that NASA’s budget reports were overly optimistic.
Someone has gotten their claws into the Wall Street Journal and is using it to further their own political agenda. Without the source of the leaked budget document (a preliminary August 19th report meant for NASA managers eyes alone), and without further investigation, multiple online news articles are blasting the news ipso-facto. This is dangerous for both NASA and Obama, and must be curtailed as soon as possible.
No reports of an investigation have surfaced yet. If the reporter fails to divulge his source, the Senators who blindly accused their President will be at fault, and will be looking to the Wall Street Journal for answers. That is, unless it was they who planted the document in the first place. Since both Senators are heavily interested in the Space Launch System because they represent the states where the vehicles will be built, it is highly unlikely that they were involved. The question remains, who was?
NASA’s Budget Prospects Decay Further
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903648204576555010831469864.html