I think this shift in NASA’s exploration objectives is long overdue.
Exploring Mars with probes and satellites is a worthy endeavor, that has advanced our knowledge of our neighbor planet, but exploring our own satellite makes more sense for a host of reasons.
I agree, but it's meaningless until Richard "Pork Barrel" Shelby is out of office. The ideal space program for that parasite is, replace the STS with the SLS (same engines, different burn time) and the ISS with the Deep Space Gateway (gateway to nowhere).
We should and could establish a huge lunar settlement inside a lava tube on the lunar surface; thanks to the low gravity, those have a potential of bridging a half mile wide and many miles long underground habitat where huge numbers of people could live, do research and (more to the point) vacation.