The thing is, it's the same kind of ignorance as today, people think space travel is exclusively about sending weird looking machines to space, and don't know of the technology we use all the time these days that wouldn't exist, or would be far less advanced if space exploration didn't force us to develop them.

Not to mention the money spent by NASA is negligible compared to the vast majority of government institutions. Lost count how many people think the 25 billion NASA gets every year would make a difference, when the US already spends upwards of a trillion on welfare.

Not to mention just for the sake of exploration, wish more people understood how fascinating it is that we are working towards letting humans live in places and environments that our bodies can't withstand, how interesting it is the act of overcoming our own nature.