I think the amount of funding is kind of irrelevant. Our government has lost (or perhaps given away) the ability to actually build anything without an infinite array of subcontractors all trying to fleece the taxpayer for as much money as possible. If the budget was higher, the expenses would simply grow proportionally to absorb it.

The funding, yes. But if we had to actually make a train, a curb, a bollard, a bridge, a consumer gpu? We'd be so fucked.