Explaining why the ESA is also underfunded doesn't justify under-funding NASA. Two wrongs don't make a right. Across all industries the average R&D budget is

Explaining why the ESA is also underfunded doesn't justify under-funding NASA. Two wrongs don't make a right. Across all industries the average R&D budget is around 4%. When you look at the US R&D budget it's about 3% of the annual budget with 2% going directly to Military R&D and 0.5% going to defense and other military adjacent R&D. That's not entirely accurate thought because the Military budget for R&D also encompasses Training and Exercises. So only a fraction of that 2% is used for actual R&D. That missing 1% is 3x Nasa's budget and 1.5 the DOD's.