When a president promises something beyond his years in office, he is fundamentally unaccountable. It is not his budget that must finish the job. Another president inherits the problem, and it becomes a ball too easily dropped, a plan too easily abandoned, a dream too readily deferred.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of accountability in leadership, especially regarding long-term commitments.
Neil Degrasse Tyson highlights the issue of political accountability, suggesting that when a president makes promises that extend beyond their term, they evade responsibility for fulfilling those promises. This creates a cycle where future leaders face inherited problems, resulting in unfulfilled plans and deferred dreams, highlighting the challenge of maintaining continuity and accountability in leadership roles.
In practice
This quote can be used in a political debate to highlight the importance of accountability in leadership.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.
Class is more important than a game.
I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
American influence in the world depends on the ability to act with real capacity and set an example that others will want to follow. This all takes resources.
The biggest of the big ideas that guided the strategy during the surge was explicit recognition that the most important terrain in the campaign in Iraq was the human terrain - the people - and our most important mission was to improve their security.
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.
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