Spending Money Just to Spend Money

Last fall, President Obama cancelled most of the $12 billion Constellation program, an ambitious plan launched by his predecessor to fund a replacement for the retiring Space Shuttle and to get Americans back to the moon. Even though the program is now dead, language inserted in the 2010 federal budget forbids NASA from canceling any Constellation contracts until there is a 2011 budget—and there is still no 2011 budget, reports CNBC's Jane Wells.