I'm not sure what Eisenhower has to do with the 2009 stimulus, but let's not forget he justified the interstate system for defense purposes, which in hind sight was a stretch. But, it was the right decision to build and benefits everyone.
As a % of GDP military spending has been trending downward since Eisenhower's time, usually hovering around 5% or less.
Granted, there has been exceptions, Reagan 7% and Bush II 6%, for rearmament and wars.
One thing Eisenhower never envisioned was the shrinking of our allies military budgets, unfortunately nature hates a vacuum. We could become an "old republican" isolationist version of "Fortress America" and tell the rest of the world to go to hell. Actually, with the resent oil discoveries we probably could.
