and yet we should make the tax cuts permanent?
what does $10 billion dollars a year buy you? well if you're a US taxpayer and you're doing some holiday shopping at the Missile Defense store, there's plenty of failure for sale:
The first test in nearly two years of a multibillion-dollar U.S. anti-missile shield failed on Wednesday when the interceptor missile shut down as it prepared to launch in the central Pacific, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said.
About 16 minutes earlier, a target missile carrying a mock warhead had been successfully fired from Kodiak Island, Alaska, according to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency.
The aborted $85 million test appeared likely to set back plans for activation of a rudimentary bulwark against long-range ballistic missiles that could be fired by countries like North Korea (news - web sites).
In 2002, President Bush (news - web sites) pledged to have initial elements of the program up and running by the end of this year while testing and development continued.