A lack of vision thanks to a lack of money

The Guardian has a story about the probable end to the "back to the moon" idea:

Barack Obama will unveil plans to cut back 120 government programmes to help rein in the US deficit, including NASA's plans to send a manned mission to the moon. According to reports, the Obama administration plans to shelve the Constellation programme, which was laid out by George W. Bush and which called for a return to the moon by 2020. It also anticipated human landings on Mars by the middle of the century.
The search for life on Mars has long been high on NASA's agenda, with missions to the planet every 26 months, 23 orbiting spacecraft, and three successful landings, but last September the agency announced that "no plan compatible with the 2010 budget profile permitted human exploration to continue in any meaningful way".