And getting the public behind some sort of patriotic, nationalistic advancement, like space exploration, is exactly the sort of thing you need to convince them taxes need to be raised. (or else the other guys will BEAT US)
Question: What is on the moon anyways? Are there mineral resources? Is it actually worth settling there?
It would serve as a really good base of operations for extra-planetary exploration. Construction would be easier, and cheaper, than the space station after a certain point. There are some raw materials, but primarily it would serve as a launching point for potential missions to the asteroid belt - with the wealth of mineral resources available there, and a manufacturing center on the moon, space exploration, REAL space exploration, without all the drawbacks of having to launch all that heavy stuff up from earth, becomes available to us.
The only problem is that we don't have the USSR around any more, China probably hasn't closed the gap far enough to be a serious challenge, and there is no way that even U.S. media could convince anyone outside the lunatic fringe that, say, Iran has a functioning spaceflight program.
As for 'why?', yeah, that's pretty much it. It is easier to build things in space than it is to provide the effort to lift everything we need out of a gravity well, and it would give us an extraterrestrial focus for industry and exploration. As an added bonus, I seem to recall that there are deposits of ice beneath the surface of the moon, which would largely eliminate the need to boost any out into orbit for crops, as well as providing a potential fuel source.
I also support it because of the whole thing with eggs and baskets over giant pools of lava and thermonuclear warheads, and because MOONBASE FUCK YEAH in my lifetime.