And yet, LBJ had already thrown his own Great Society programs to the dogs to pay for Vietnam according to the press back at that time. Reusability was the ONLY priority for building the Shuttle; the argument in favor was exactly the one you’re making now; the Shuttle remains the only reusable system that has ever made it to operational status; discounting the ONLY one as “one data point” is absurd; and of course, blaming the Air Force and Nixon for the Shuttle’s problems — problems which are directly attributable to the singleminded pursuit of reusability — is something a Demwit would do.
Have you ever read the history of shuttle development? Nasa got little of what they asked for and ultimately built the vehicle the air force wanted.
In no other area of transportation are expendable vehicles considered viable. They were only used for launchers because it was easier to use the ammunition that was available than developing a new system from scratch.
From the beginning, von Braun and others envisioned reusable vehicles and planned to develop them at the first opportunity.