Is NASA being set up for the failure option?

"No bucks, no Buck Rogers": That phrase, attributed to Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom, perfectly encapsulates the problem that NASA has faced for decades. Without the requisite money, there's no way America's space effort can do great things. The Augustine panel put its finger on the problem last year, but Rand Simberg writes in Popular Mechanics that the same thing is happening again. Congress is trying to low-ball the high frontier.