I agree with most of it but truth to be told NASA was on a donwhill since the mid 80’s, when the german scientists that were imported after WWII via operation paperclib have died out like the head of NASA Wernher Von Braun, without Russia there would be no private launches either as they are supplying their advanced rocket engines for it like the RD-180 for the Atlas V and soon the RD-181 for the Antares, the ISS would be also toast since Russia built the core systems of it based on their MIr 2 designs(Russian Orbital Segment).
But you are right instead of coups and proxy wars and aiding and arming headchopping rapist cannibal jihadists and drug cartels like los zetas(school of the americas+fast and furious), or the maidan nazis in Ukraine the money could be well spent for space exploration and rebuilding the archaic infrastrucutre you have, like trains, bridges, highways, electrical grid the list goes on, compared to Europe the US. is decades behind now, even when comapred to some eastern european countries, FACT.