[watchandwait]

In 2011, the the U.S. government will spend more money directly bailing out Fannie Mae than it will spend on NASA's entire budget.

[hugh3]

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA the inflation-adjusted budget of NASA over its entire history from 1958 to 2011 is less than $800 billion.

That is significantly less than the cost of... several single large initiatives that have passed through Congress recently (no doubt if I picked an actual example then I'd wind up with a political argument on my hands...)