Ted Cruz's Plan For NASA

Ted Cruz is now the chairperson of the Senate Committee with jurisdiction over NASA. This seemed to me like a great choice. NASA is one of the few government agencies that Freepers like, being a source of American exceptionalism, a Cold War triumph, and a program that Obama has been neglecting.

But Nope. Freepers have gotten more hardline, I think. Probably a sign of its dwindling numbers, as the less zealous move on to greener pastures.

So witness Freepers showing how hard core they are by dissing Ted Cruz and NASA:

1010RD may not be clear on who drives demand for private space flight.

JFK as an inspiration? NASA needs to be wound down. The future of space is private. Cruz has gone native.

Talisker is still angry about a rocket that got discontinued in 1972.

Hey Ted, tell NASA to check their dumpsters for the Saturn 5 engine blueprints. Because throwing them away was really rational and excusable and not f*****g TREASON, right?

Amendment10's Constitution is more narrow than the Founders thought.

I enjoyed following NASA on TV when I was growing up. But now that I’ve been studying the Constitution and its history I know that Cruz is wrong to trumpet NASA’s core mission as space exploration. (Whatever Cruz was indoctrinated with in Harvard Law School, it certainly wasn’t the federal government’s limited powers as the Founding States had intended for those powers to be understood.)

More specifically, if Cruz really wants to promote NASA he needs to do the following. He must rally Congress to propose a space exploration amendment to the Constitution to the states. And if the states choose to ratify Cruz’s amendment then Congress will actually have the constitutional authority that it needs to tax and spend for space exploration purposes and Cruz will be a hero.

But also note that I will support Cruz for president if that’s who Obama guard dog Fx News nominates as the candidate. (No, that’s not how candidate nominations are supposed to work, but …)

norwaypinesavage hates NASA now.

I’ll have to disagree with Ted on this one. The once-great NASA has become nothing but a nest of bureaucrats who spend their time trolling for taxpayer dollars. There is only one way to save the US space program: kill NASA and start over with a real space program, not one based from a Muslim outreach bureaucracy.

That Muslim outreach canard sure has gotten a lot of traction.

iowacornman hates how the rest of the world got all the benefit for the moon landing without paying for it:

The only problem is that we are worse than broke!! We need to stop foreign aid and move that to claiming space areas as property of the United States if we are paying for it. No more “mankind” crap. The Moon was claimed for MANKIND? You can’t make that up!!. Mankind did not pay a dime!! We paid the entire bill.

GraceG rationalizes that Cruz's push for more spending is actually a clever masterstroke:

Further evidence that if the Senate leadership wants to marginalize a member who wants to reduce government then the quickest way to do it is give him chairmanship of a committee that spends money.

It was all part of Turtle’s plan to get Ted Cruz the moniker “Guy who hates science” in the national discussion....

Ted has creatively side stepped this indirect attack, and we shall see his plans.

GraceG does not seem to understand NASA's history.

I would be fine with Rolling NASA under the military jurisdiction.

NASA was made an open, civilian agency specifically in order to contrast with the USSR's military efforts.

Hetty_Fauxvert is all about militarizing space:

I am amazed at the number of people on this thread who don’t realize that the United States needs to *control* space (at least our immediate portion of it) as a defense issue. Cruz can’t come out and SAY that (because enough people already like to call him a loon) but it’s true. The Chinese are working to put a base on the Moon. And the U.S. can’t be out in space without Russia’s cooperation these days. Do you think letting Russia and China control our immediate area of space is a safe way to go for the long run?

Remember the dictum: Control the high ground. And it’s a little dated, but find and read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” Then let’s talk.

txhurl is basically Hydra from Captain America 2.

And open up rods from the gods stations, 24 around the atmosphere.