I'm sorry, I just don't buy into Soviet model economies.
I've so far seen two plausible reasons for going to the moon. Colleting He3 for reactors we don't have yet, or building a giant array of solar power collectors and beaming that power back via microwave to a powergrid we haven't yet established on earth. Both of those the private markets will gladly fund when it isn't a waste of resources to do so.
Why, instead of putting a gun to your neighbors head, don't you try to convince other people of the wisdom of turning over their hard earned money for bureaucrats to spend willy-nilly on this project? Afraid you wouldn't have enough takers unless you pointed a gun at them?
We might consider the Dubya space program to be a minimal program. At no point did he commit to any huge expenditures for a permanent moon base or even a Mars landing. That's for the future to decide. What he has proposed is to go out there and take a look around and see what is actually there. When and if something is discovered that justifies a massive program, then the decision to go large will be considered. This is conservative. We have to explore but it needn't cost significantly more than what we are already spending until and if something interesting turns up.