With his head in the clouds, Bush hopes we'll all focus on the stars instead of his domestic agenda.

President Bush will announce plans next week to establish a permanent human settlement on the moon and to set a goal of eventually sending Americans to Mars, administration sources said last night.

The sources said Bush will announce a new "human exploration" agenda in Washington on Wednesday, six days ahead of the final State of the Union address of his term and just as his reelection campaign moves from the planning stage to its public phase.

[...]

Officials were unwilling to provide cost figures or details and would say only that Bush will direct the government to immediately begin research and development to establish a human presence or base on the moon, with the goal of having that lead to a manned mission to Mars. That endeavor could be a decade or more away, the officials said.

[...]

Even advocates within the administration said the new project is sure to be a difficult sell on Capitol Hill because of the huge costs at a time when the administration is projecting mammoth deficits for years to come, and had promised to cut the shortfall in half over the next five years.

Yes, there's something to be said for aiming high. But Bush is no Kennedy, and we are not at the height of the cold war. We have real problems here at home - problems the Bush administration has ignored in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy. Mars is a distraction that we just don't have the time or money for.