NASA has become an ATM machine to fuel Musk, Bezos’ space race: Bernie Sanders Lambasts

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke out about the escalating space race, slamming billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for fueling it. Sanders expressed his concerns about the privatisation of space exploration in an opinion article published in The Guardian, accusing entrepreneur Elon Musk of exploiting NASA as an ATM machine. ‘I am concerned that NASA has become little more than an ATM machine to fuel a space race not between the US and other countries, but between the two wealthiest men in America- Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’, the Senator wrote.

Sanders also emphasised the pair’s combined fortune of $450 billion, asserting that the objective of space exploration must be to assist people rather than to make the wealthy even wealthier. He had shared a piece over a report by Morgan Stanley that said Musk’s aerospace firm might make him the world’s first trillionaire. Sanders questioned if Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who is worth $170 billion (according to Forbes real-time statistics), should be given a multibillion-dollar public bailout when 6,00,000 Americans are homeless.

Sanders has been outspoken in his condemnation of the world’s wealthiest men and their suspected tax dodging. The Senator revealed in a tweet earlier this week that even if an American paid $1 in federal income tax, it would still be more than what Bezos paid in 2007 and 2011 and what Musk paid in 2018.

If you paid $1 In federal income taxes, you paid more in taxes than:

AT&T in 2021
Tesla in 2021
Amazon in 2017-2018
Nike in 2020
FedEx in 2020
Dish Network in 2020
Elon Musk in 2018
Jeff Bezos in 2007 & 2011
Carl Icahn in 2016-2017

Yes. It’s time to tax the rich.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 18, 2022

The 80-year-old has ripped against commercial space flight in recent salvos, questioning whether the wealthy should refine their hobby of space excursions. He referenced the most recent commercial trip, Axiom-1, which was supported by NASA and SpaceX and cost $55 million to reach the International Space Station with three of the four astronauts. ‘The good news is that if you are a billionaire tired of vacationing in the Caribbean, there are some exciting travel opportunities for you. The bad news is that American taxpayers are subsidizing some of that trip’, Sanders wrote.

Sanders’ office released a recording of his speech on April 9, in which he expressed alarm about the current space competition between Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin. ‘If we are able to accomplish the extraordinary goal of sending a person to Mars, I want the flag that will be flying on that planet to be the flag of the United States of America, not the flag of SpaceX or Blue Origin’, he had stated.

If we are able to accomplish the extraordinary goal of sending a person to Mars, I want the flag that will be flying on that planet to be the flag of the United States of America, not the flag of SpaceX or Blue Origin. pic.twitter.com/SyDTzq71Ci

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 8, 2022