As part of the White House’s “We the People” Petition program, the administration responded Friday to a petition on its website requesting the construction of a Death Star by 2016, according to The Huffington Post.
In the petition, its supporters cite job creation and national defense as the primary reasons for building a Death Star. According to the White House website, the petition garnered 34,435 signatures in support of the Star Wars-inspired project by its Dec. 14 deadline.
The White House replied to the petition with a response titled, “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For.” The response was written by Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
While Shawcross acknowledged the importance of job creation and the national defense, he went on to reject the proposal based on the following reasoning:
“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?”
After the initial rejection, Shawcross then highlighted the White House’s current projects, which include among other things, the International Space Station and the construction of both “a probe that will fly into the exterior layers of the Sun” and a “much more powerful successor to the Hubble [Space] Telescope.”
Shawcross’ response ended with his whimsical promotion of science, math and technology education and the pursuit of careers in those fields as a way to keep the Force with us since “the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”
Often described as moon-sized, the Death Star was a space station from the Star Wars movie franchise, equipped with planet-destroying lasers.
Since September 2011, The White House’s “We the People” program has had White House officials directly respond to petitions submitted by Americans as long as each petition gets at least 25,000 online signatures within 30 days.