the near term future of american manned space flight

Form the NY Times - the fight over NASA's future.

American interest in manned space flight peaked before Apollo 11 and the landing on the moon - the high point was probably about 40 years ago when Apollo 8 circled behind the moon on Christmas Eve.  

Manned space flight is enormously expensive and the country is broke. It is difficult imagining compelling reasons for anything aggressive.  There are more efficient ways to stimulate spending and providing high tech growth.  What is the problem it solves?

I'm a big supporter of unmanned space exploration - real science is being done.  A  manned program seems quaint.  Perhaps a multinational effort makes sense at some time in the future ...