“Newt has NEVER said that the idea will be accomplished with public money, but that he counted to enroll private companies to achieve a great program and not leave the space to the Chinese and Russians who are heavily investing in it. “
And why in the world would private companies want to take on something that will cost a half trillion dollars with no potential of making any profit?
If you really want to compete with the Chinese, we could start by not owing them so much money.
The height of irony and chutzpah would be to build an American moon colony ... with Chinese money *grin*