This administration should invest all available funds (and maybe some of all that money we borrow) towards the creation of faster than light travel to enable interstellar flight before 2075 because:
1) science and stuff
2) we're not doing too well on this planet, we should probably go find another one
3) it would be neat to zip around like Star Trek
4) we need to test ET's blood to determine once and for all if he was or was not a Jedi.