Breaking the ice

The United States only has one functioning icebreaking ship. Holy crap! From Popular Mechanics:

Why the U.S. Must Build More Icebreakers Now
When politicians argue over President Obama�s new 2013 budget proposal, one thing that should escape criticism is the $8 million to be spent on designing a new polar-class icebreaker for the Coast Guard. The hard part will follow: It will cost nearly $1 billion to actually build the ship, and it�s $1 billion that Congress needs to find.

The United States is the world�s colossus when it comes to every other kind of military hardware, yet it has just one functioning icebreaker: the medium-strength USCGC Healy, which is primarily used for research. The ship made headlines recently for breaking open a route to the Alaskan town of Nome to aid in the delivery of much-needed fuel. It was a great mission, but it may have left an overly upbeat impression of American capabilities. The country also owns two heavy-duty icebreakers: One of the aging vessels is being decommissioned, and the other is being refurbished after years of disuse. That�s not good enough. While it�s encouraging to finally see some progress being made in the current budget proposal, the problem is far from solved�and the United States has national interests in icy waters.

Obama has gutted the military, he has gutted NASA (we no longer have the ability to put a human into space -- no repairs of satellites like the Hubble and we pay the Russians to carry us to our own space station), and now this. A bit more:

China, a country with no Arctic coast, is building icebreakers�and that should get America�s attention. It�s one thing for Russia, with the world�s longest Arctic coastline, to operate a couple dozen of the ships. (Fortunately, they�re available for leasing, at a price.) It�s understandable, maybe, for Finland, Sweden, and Canada to surpass the United States in this area. But why is China constructing an 8000-ton vessel capable of breaking through 4.5 ft of ice at a steady clip, to join the XueLong, its existing ice-class vessel?

The article explains why China's interest. One more bit:

When the Healy churned its way to Alaska to help deliver fuel, its maintenance schedule was thrown off. As a result, scientific projects may have to be delayed this summer. To deliver supplies to America�s McMurdo Station in Antarctica each year, the NSF has been relying on foreign-flagged vessels. As PM reported last July, Sweden�s move to pull its icebreaker Oden off the McMurdo job put the entire 2011�2012 research season in jeopardy. NSF scrambled and eventually was able to commission a Russian vessel.

Obama and his advisers are morons -- we do not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem and all of that spending is going to feed The Vote Pump and not to real problems. Time for a fresh set of eyeballs and a bit of spine.