More specifically, constitutionally clueless President Eisenhower seems to have been a rhinoseros in a china factory with respect to not encouraging Congress to comply with its constitutional Article V requirement to petition the states for specific new powers before signing into law legislation that established both NASA and the nation's freeway system. Based on the following excerpt from Justice John Marshall's official writings which i've posted before, the states have never granted Congress via the Constitution the specific power to tax and spend for a "civilian" space exploration like NASA. So NASA essentially must necessarily be classified as a military research agency to survive constitutonal strutiny imo.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824. Regarding the nation's highways, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, a delegate to the Constitutonal Convention, had suggested delegating to Congress the specific power to build canals. This is because waterways were superfreeways of the ancient world as they can arguably be regarded today. Dr. Franklin suggested the idea likely for the purpose of moving freight as semi trucks do today on the nation's highways.
But also note that Dr. Franklin's fellow delages to the Con-Con had decided against Congress building canals on another point which I won't go into here. In fact, here's a link to the page from Madison's daily journal of Con-Con debates which contains the discussion. Search for "canal."
"Docr. FRANKLIN moved to add after the words "post roads" Art I. Sect. 8. "a power to provide for cutting canals where deemed necessary"" --Madison Debates Tuesday September 14, 1787.
So what disturbs me about "civilian" NASA and our superhighways, along with all the constitutionally indefensible federal taxing and spending programs that Constitution-ignoring FDR started is the following. The delegates to the Con-Con had intented for Congress to successfully petition the states for amendments to the Constitution so that Congress would have the constitutional authority to tax and spend for such projects. So the reason that we have unconstitutionally big federal government today is arguably because Constitution-illiterate voters no longer use their voting power to check Congress or the Oval Office when Congress oversteps its constitutionally limited powers.
So thanks a bunch Ike.
In fact, I've recently stumbled across smoking-gun evidence imo, which I've mentined in other threads, that Congress is deliberatly ignoring its Article V requirement to successfully petition the states for specific new powers before establishing new taxing and spending programs. More specifically, former Congressman Jessie Jackson Jr. had proposed a constitutional healthcare amendment that should have proceeded Obamacare, Congress ignoring Jackson's proposal. The following excerpt from govtrack.us helps substantiate my ranting that corrupt Congress is blatantly ignoring Article V.
"The resolution's title starts with "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United." (-10%)" --H.J.Res. 30: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States regarding the right … H.J. Res. 30.Finally, as a side note, I suggest that patriots consider the pros and cons of exercising what's left of their voting muscle to require lawmakers to put expiration dates on all constitutional delegations of power to Congress. The states can always renew such delegations of power before they expire.
Hell, who needs Nasa when we have Acorn. Anyway, we can always hitch a ride with the Chinese.