re: I'm more of an infrastructure kind of guy
"But I want us to go to Mars too, and I admit it is currently impossible to get approval for an asteroid or lunar mining program. "
And if it was impossible, that would be good. I certainly don't want a asteroid or lunar mining PROGRAM. Whereas if it was a program which was about exploration of either the Moon or Asteroids in order to determine what were the commerically minable resources, that would be a different story. The last thing we need is NASA pounding on some rock somewhere in some vain attempt at mining.