The space race began sometime ago.
I can not speak for others but I think of the space race, I think of Sputnik and John Glenn.
Funny thing about space out there doesn't matter if you are Republican or Democrat, human would be a better term.

The following is what John Glenn thinks of America's current Space program.

For , who 50 years ago became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth in his Mercury spacecraft, today is a bittersweet anniversary.
Twelve astronauts have since walked on the moon. Robot space probes have visited every planet from Mercury to Neptune, and another is on its way to Pluto. And there has been at least one American living in space at any given time for the past dozen years; six men -- two Americans, three Russians and a Dutchman -- are today orbiting on the International Space Station.
But the United States, having retired its aging fleet of last year, has no way at the moment to launch its own astronauts. NASA has plans for a new Space Launch System (SLS for short), and hopes private industry will take on the job of ferrying astronauts to the space station. But, for now, when the United States needs to launch an astronaut, it rents a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
"It's unseemly to me that here we are, supposedly the world's greatest space-faring nation, and we don't even have a way to get back and forth to our own International Space Station," Glenn said during the celebrations marking the anniversary of Friendship 7.

There was a fictional show called "HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE THROUGH THE GALAXY",of course this was all Science Fiction.
However American astronauts hitchhiking a ride from Russians to get to our own International Space station ,although it may sound a bit science fiction is sadly the truth.

If the Space program becomes a private program they will be competeing against other private programs as well as other countries and they will lose not only money but valuable time.

Ladies and Gentlemen I await your comment on this subject.:peace