If the U.S. wasn't fighting wars and we did not have a recession, would the U.S. be more interested in Space?

Blame the Executive branch. Congress actually wanted to increase the NASA budget. Obama said no and then he said yes. Now it's too late to join the Europeans in a manned space mission. Obama is all over the place and is now blaming Congress who wanted to fund more things. He can't keep changing his mind, because we are missing out on doing things with other countries. You have to commit to a multi year plan of funding. People want NASA funded, because they don't use that much money out of the whole budget. They are really good at keeping it low. Obama has ruined NASA by telling Congress not to spend on it, then to spend on it. He found out people wanted to spend on NASA... but it's too late now. NASA can't work like that. It's sad and I do think people care about it. More than being in countries we shouldn't be in.