Looks like some people are looking for a longterm rather than a shortterm space initiative:

Mike Mott, Boeing's vice president of space systems, is hopeful that whatever goal is set this time, it's more long term than the drop-off of funding that followed Apollo.

I've heard people comment, both here and elsewhere, that any new space initiative that sets out longterm goals is pretty much destined to fail.

But if that's the case, and if government is unwilling or unable to hand NASA a blank check, then when will we ever be able to bust outa earth orbit again? In all seriousness, when is any business going to find a real reason to send people even as far as the moon?

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not trying to belittle the remarkable work of groups like Armadillo and Scaled Composites. But what about the spirit of doing things simply because they're possible to do, and going places simply because we can?

My fear is that if space exploration doesn't become a longterm project for the United States, either it'll A) just never happen, or B) become a longterm project for another country. Of course, the latter is all well and good if we happen to enjoy warming the bench. While we're studying spreadsheets, doing cost-benefit analysis and deciding that it isn't worth it, someone else is gonna be out there doing it.