I don't even think he needs to privatize it, I think commercial interests, by 2010, will be launching people into space on their own (unless the government tries to regulate space travel, which wouldn't suprise me). I read that 2015 will be the earliest we have people on the moon, so who knows. I think some didn't read Bush's speech and think he's going to have people on the moon by the time he's out of office.
As far as faster than light, well, not quite as fast, but NASA, both in the past, and even recently, has looked at some kind of nuclear propulsion (I'm not a physics/nuclear engineering guy, but maybe somebody else can explain). The enviro-whackos will do everything they can to stop that though, and so that engine branch is going nowhere.