Personally, I would like to see spending on space go up by an order of magnitude or two, and that would include not only a lunar colony, but a manned Mars mission as well. Unfortunately, people like us are not in charge of spending the money. So we are restricted to lobbying for the best use of whatever funding is allocated as possible. In my opinion, the only way our leaders are really going to expand the space program substantially is 1) We find something REALLY neat out there, 2) We find something VERY profitable out there, or 3) We find a way to get off-planet a lot cheaper than we can now, so more $ can go to the mission and less to propulsion. We need to design our current programs to maximize the possibility of making one of these things happen.

After we find the equivalent of Aztec gold or Indian tea or Virginia tobacco out there the funding issues will go away. Until then, the smart thing to do is keep the program alive and maximize the exploration component until we do find it. This is why there is such an emphasis on Mars right now, it has the right combination of accessibility and the possibility of microbial life. A Petri dish full of Martian bugs will double our knowledge of biochemistry overnight, and give the nation that has it a great head start on a whole new industry.