Newt is a visionary. He wants the private sector involved with the project and I predict that one day...years down the road..many will look back (after China has a base on the moon) and say that Newt was right and a man ahead of his time.
I will not say that NG is a visionary, as he is too well known as a panderer. Be it as it may, he is correct. A nation without a vision of something greater, something inspirational, is no nation at all, just a ship without a rudder or compass, going in circles.
Von Braun was ahead of his time, as was James Clerk Maxwell, Dyson and Tesla. NG is just another politician, to be believed and trusted at one’s own peril.
I’ll remind those reading this that of the Presidents with manned space programs (JFK, Bush 1, 2), only Kennedy’s plan passed Congress. All the others died on the vine.
Why anyone imagines NG’s plan will survive Congress is an open question.
As I said earlier, when - not if - China has a base on the moon, it will be militarized and we will do as they tell us. We will make their consumer goods for them. And people living in the North American territory, formerly known as the USA, will be glad for the job, even if it only pays $1hr under horrible working conditions.
Those who repeat the mantera of “we can’t afford it” may have reached critiacal mass. Dooming us all to contemplate our navels looking for the fount of godhead or some such drival.