I warned from paragraph one, word one that my remarks were rushed and not as considered as the topic deserved.
No, by "expansion" I do not mean "hegemony". The United States does not need to push indiginous folk off their islands to take over their lands in the name of "discovering" or "claiming" them. Nor do I mean we need to have an Air Force Base on the moon before the Russians. And of course I'm not in favour of turning Antarctica into habitat for a burgeoning population. Let's drop that right there and now.
And of course, as Prince pointed out, I do not mean that government must spearhead innovation and change, though certainly, as he also pointed out, government CAN stifle innovation.
With those points of order set straight for the record, let's look at the whole ugly situation from another angle. Whether you like it or not, other nations WILL judge the US by its ability to innovate in all areas, including space. I am sure there were moments in World War II when Churchill basically thought, "Oh dear Lord, we're all going to die!" but he was careful not to give that perception to the world. The United States must be careful what perceptions it gives the rest of the world, given that India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons, Iran has launched a satellite, China has a man in space programme and it only takes a box as big as a Dodge Minivan to track all your trains, planes and automobiles from orbit. You can go on Google Earth and actually see the lawn furniture I had in my backyard. Military applications are many, many, MANY times sharper. There are rumours they can make out license plate numbers on cars.
I don't think there are any stupid people in this thread. I'm not calling anyone here stupid, any more than I would call someone stupid for standing where lightning was about to strike. Obviously you would move if you thought you were about to be struck by lightning. But you CAN know in advance that space has become of vital strategic importance to human welfare, and it has been for a very long time, and it will become much more so in the future. Any country with ideals and the courage to preserve those ideals will want to be integrally involved in that future with all the technology our God-given talents can contrive.
Remember, you could feed a LOT of poor people with what we spend on police, fire, ambulance and forensics. And home, auto and life insurance really eat too much of your budget if you KNEW BEYOND A DOUBT you would never have a wreck, a fire, or die.