White House Responds to Petition to Build a Death Star

Jan 12, 2013 08:47 PM ET
by Natalie Abrams
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Star Wars

We bet the White House is starting to regret that policy of responding to every petition that garners 25,000 signatures.  

In a report cheekily titled "This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For" — the White House explains why the U.S. cannot build a Death Star, a planet-destroying space station inspired by the Star Wars films.

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Paul Shawcross, the chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, broke it down. "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?"

Are you sad that there won't be a Death Star?