Dismantling the Future. Congress, NASA and our (out of ) Space program

So while reading the news tonight I came across an article on the fact that NASA doesn't feel that 8 billion is enough money to build a rocket with the parameters set down by Congress.
Now I'm not sure which part of the this equation disturbs me more:  Congress setting technical parameters ( and saying build it is the LAW) or that NASA doesn't feel it can meet them.  Either way it comes down to the same thing:  the United States will not have a  manned space vehicle after the Shuttle is retired later this year.

Honestly, this makes me want to cry. 

I had a vision of what  "space exploration"  should be.  It included engineers developing the technology to drive our astronauts to the red planet and (far) beyond.  It had a  brave, almost swashbuckling quality to it.  People reaching out and grabbing the   FUTURE. Making new and unintended discoveries settling colonies, growing beyond the fragile boundaries of our planet.

I know it sounds like pure romantic tripe, but there it is.

Right now though, my future is stillborn.  It lies dead in the face of bureaucratic cuts and men who lack the vision to dream.

It makes me sick to consider that soon the United States will have cut itself out of space and ceded the future.