Assertions aren't facts, and your comment has plenty of the former with few of the latter. For example, "might is necessary to avoid colonization" is simply fal

Assertions aren't facts, and your comment has plenty of the former with few of the latter. For example, "might is necessary to avoid colonization" is simply false--as in it's objectively, empirically not true. Two of your numbers, SS and Medicare, are at best disingenuous to bring up because of the nature of their funding and expenditure mechanisms. In any case, the development cost is projected to be about 25% of the lifetime cost ($400 billion out of $1.45 trillion). Of the two items you listed that are comparable to a military expenditure, $400 bn is 5% of the education number and 40% of the NASA number--not trivial in either case.