Any society has choices - go forward or stagnate and collapse.
Recent US administrations have decided to stagnate and collapse.
(We are collapsing now - in case you haven't noticed)

This is where I like to tell the story of the Ming Dynasty outlawing the
large exploration ships to keep the merchant class in place. China could
have had colonies in Europe.

Bush was just lying (as usual) when he nattered about some future
(always 'future') plans to go to Mars.

I think things were a bit more complicated - at the time there was
discussions of closing half the NASA centers and ending the shuttle to free
up budget. Much like we closed obsolete military bases. Then when the local
politicians like Pelosi screamed no, we got into the 10 healthy NASA centers
mantra, with many design decisions being made by the political science folks
instead of the rocket science folks. There was talk of building the Lunar
Lander at the Cape because it was too large to ship. Then they build a
thermal vacuum chamber near Sandusky Ohio to test the Constellation
vehicles. We didn't have the money for Altair - but multiple NASA centers
were already building and testing protoype surface rovers - and still are.

Obamba just flat out said 'We ain't goin' nowhere' when it was his
turn (the week after massive deposits of water were found on the
moon)!

Obama as a senator introduced legislation to kill NASA and spend the money
on welfare - the new Proxmire. Look at the mission he gives to the
director - go make friends in the third world. Obama confirms it, then
denies it, but it's being done. To go where no NASA director has ever gone
before - the UAE. What else has Bolden actually done. I'd love to know the
real politics behind the Augustine Report. Let's go look at a mathematical
point in space - I remember being on a cruise where three old ladies ran to
the window to get a glimpse of the Artic Circle. Or is it just rally around
the part Lockheed already has.

Kennedy (the last 'good' president), sent the US to the moon 50 years
ago.
And the conniving, inept, little neocon puppet men who have followed
him have sent you and the country to 2nd rate status.

I worked on Apollo - those were great days. Apollo had a mission, was a
national effort, and we made it really happen.
NASA was new Kennedy had a clearly defined goal, and you didn't have the
centers fighting each other for funds. Constellation was a logical extension
to Apollo - yet we had celebrites like Buzz running around saying - we
already did that - and people buying it.