"fix all your problems before anything else" Will come as a byproduct of their Space program. It's true as you say, some people have a knee-jerk reaction to this, but more level-headed people can see the enormous benefit in not just science, technology and medicine that will surely come as a result of this, but also the jobs it will create and the inertia to succeed. That's gotta pump some money back into the economy.

There are several generations of scientists, mathematicians engineers, doctors, you name it... that have been inspired by the U.S. space program, so I can completely view this as the best idea they've had in a long time.