NASA already gets too much money.

Wow, "NASA," and "too much money" used in the same sentence! :-)

I sense a fundamental philisophical difference here. I agree that the NASA house needs to be put in order, and they need a direction to move in (something perhaps more specific than "up"). But I'd also love to see their budget raised along with their sights (yes, I'm an American taxpayer and it comes right out of my pocket...but it's well worth it, imho).

Let's leave the LEO business (mostly) to private industry, but let's not leave the moon only to the Chinese. After all, I'd bet that even Rutan's lunar lander isn't too far beyond the napkin-sketch phase. Unless we're willing to play second fiddle, it seems to me NASA still has a big and necessarily expensive role to play in America's space program.

Just some thoughts from an industry outsider...