I think government funding of science is actually slowing it down. Most scientists in the academic world are focused on churning out papers for prestige and chasing grants. There is too much noise generated and lot of it is just bad/poor science.

The government crowds out industrial/commercial labs that are necessary to actually complete large huge projects. As for going to mars, look at how much SpaceX has accomplished and what it cost -- significantly leaner and cheaper than NASA running the show.

Also, taxes are mainly used for social programs and not really for science.