As you may or may not be aware, there’s a petition over on We the People, which is where folks post petitions to potentially receive an official response from the United State government, requesting that the Obama administration “[s]ecure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” Like, Star Wars Death Star. Ordinarily, this would just be an amusing blip on the radar, covered by our sister site The Mary Sue back in December. That was before Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, penned an official White House response to it.
Shawcross’ response is fairly detailed, and amusing, but he quickly makes three important points as to why a Death Star won’t be built by the United States government at any point soon:
- The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
- The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
- Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
Sure, that can be read as tongue-in-cheek, but it’s still nice to know that Obama’s administration officially doesn’t support blowing up planets. That seems like something they’ve surely been accused of before, if my understanding of politics is correct.
The response goes on to point that we already have something similar in orbit: The International Space Station. Sure, it can’t blow up planets, but the Obama administration’s already come out as against that idea. Shawcross then notes there’s an actual part of NASA called C3PO. It’s pretty amusing. After all, it’s like Shawcross says, “We are living in the future!”
You can read the entirety of the White House’s official response here.
(via We the People)
- Hoth, Minnesota
- Unintended consequences of Star Wars
- We might possibly, maybe, get a live-action Star Wars on ABC
