I completely disagree with you on this Paul.

1.  What is so great about the government's manned space program in the first place?  We have astronauts going around the Earth in circles, in low orbit in a can.

Very soon we will no longer be able to reach the can.

There has been zero reason given to bother going into space in the first place for over thirty years by government.

2.  Taking people's earnings and handing it to government projects is wrong.  It is theft.  Sad that it is OK theft when it goes to the projects you support.

3.  Obama has essentially started to get the national space program into private hands.  While I have suspicions about the motivations and implementations of this shift, this is where I want to see things go.  There is either a real commercial value in going to space or there is not.  If there is then getting there will take care of itself if government gets out of the way.

I want to see asteroid mining.  I want to see if there is an advantage to zero G construction and manufacture.  I want to see if there is a reason to go to the moon or Mars.  But I don't want to see government provide those reasons because they are not sustainable.