Probably once people like this got involved in research decisions for politics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi

Probably once people like this got involved in research decisions for politics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire "Proxmire stated that; "it's the best argument yet for chopping NASA's funding to the bone .... I say not a penny for this nutty fantasy".[33]" I think we can look back and say that this was short sighted, NASA helped kickstart things like cordless power tools, among other now everyday techs. Would we have discovered innovations without them? Maybe, but seems unlikely.