NASA's budget is still infinitesi
mal compared to other agencies. you owe a lot to the spinoffs and discoverie
s made by the program. quite a few have been medical in nature. NASA's paid itself back over and over and over again.
go to the NASA Spinoff page at
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/ and go to the spinoff database. enter almost anything into the search fields and you'll likely find a spinoff. they range from better bicycle wheels to meals for the elderly.
politics is the reason you don't see what you want. most of those problems are ideologica
l in nature, and you have to deal with ideologues to get them, especially if you've been reading the news for the past few years.
About NASARead the Article at HuffingtonPost