Historical context is important here. Apollo was a crash program sparked by (incorrect) fears of Soviet technological supremacy. Post-Sputnik, it was important to the United States that a civilian space agency be the public face of the American program, given the military dominance of the Soviet program. We also thought it important to emphasize the benefits of free enterprise (vis a vis socialism), which is why the vast majority of the actual hardware was bid out to corporations. It's true that NASA remained in the driver's seat, but the country discovered two things:

1. That it wasn't especially comfortable with the technocratic approach to administration.
2. That the Apollo program was incredibly expensive for no obvious return.

The second point is operative today. The domestic economy is in meltdown. Going ahead with this program is akin to giving the aerospace industry a bailout. If it needs one, then let's just give them the money outright.

I experienced this yesterday driving west across the state on I-94--I kept getting "network busy" around Ann Arbor.