With Obama a lame duck and the GOP now running Congress, NASA can now dare to face the reality that the engineering, financial, and human factor challenges of a manned mission to Mars are so daunting as to make it impractical for now. Building a Moon base first though offers useful experience and a potential source of fuel for a Mars mission a decade or two later.
The Mars mission was intended as a one way (doomed) trip but Barry O’Bama didn’t want to leave a deserter behind.