A White House petition:

create a direct funding mechanism for NASA on tax forms similar to the Presidential Campaign Fund.

NASA is the crown jewel of governmental agencies and a central player in the betterment of mankind.

The importance of NASA in the advancement of physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, economics, geography, and oceanography cannot be overstated.

I urge President Obama to lobby Congress to provide the American people a method to allocate a portion of their tax dollars to the direct funding of NASA. A simple checkbox, similar to how individuals can fund the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, should be added to all IRS tax forms.

Yeah, well. There are a couple issues here:

1) I don’t know if it’s within the Presidents power to do such a thing

2) Let’s say it happens, and somehow NASA manages to get a billion dollars in direct taxpayer funding. What will Congress do? “Oh, look, NASA has an extra billion. Great! We can cut their funding by a billion, and NASA will maintain the same level, and we can give that billion we’ve saved to (insert horrible government program HERE)!”

The worst part of the petition is an included quote, meant to be inspiring:

“The most power agency on the dreams of a nation is currently underfunded to do what it needs to be doing. And that is making dreams come true.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Ummm… huh? Was NdGT drunk off his gourd when he said that… or is that a really bad transcription? Seems to be the latter.