I can only reiterate that I would cut SETI funding if given the chance. From the example of our own planet, life seems probabilistically capable of forming, but the stunning silence from the stars is too strong a piece of evidence to the contrary. Rationally we should accept that we might be alone ... or too transient, or too far away. Obviously there's some part of the Drake Equation that we greatly misunderstand.
In short, when it comes to large projects that require public funds, we should STOP LOOKING. SETI has produced a huge body of evidence that reasonable men should have accepted by now as requiring the cessation of the project. Those individuals who still want to look can still do so; at any rate, the availability of power, engineering equipment, and computing power expands across the world and will enable more and more individuals who still want to pursue the so-called quest.