[RoughDobermann]

Personally, I'd rather we use a US launch system than buy it from the Russians.

[Physicist]

Personally, I'd rather we use a US launch system than buy it from the Russians.

Oh, sure! But the launch system we have is a multi-billion-dollar death trap, while a new American one is years away (even a retrofit), and we have stuff to launch in the near term.

I say limp along with the Russian stuff for a while, and in the meantime design something really revolutionary, like a VASIMR engine.