Could we even intercept this object, moving at 38 KM/sec??
Not a rocket scientist, but such a small body with no gravity well and moving at such speeds. I'd think the best we could do is a flyby, which hardly seems worth it.
As for government spending, the majority of it goes to social programs (pensions, healthcare, poverty alleviation), so it is going to be hard to convince pols to free up money from those programs.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
