Congress's Self-Inflicted Conundrum
Will competing plans hurt nation’s future in space?, Florida Today
“But Commercial Crew has been a tough sell, politically. Lawmakers reluctantly have provided enough money for it to limp along, but not nearly enough to meet some of the ambitious deadlines the Obama administration originally set. And they question whether aerospace companies are being given too much flexibility in developing a new vehicle to carry U.S. astronauts to the space station.”
By trying to “split the baby”, NASA will a) eventually need to cancel SLS/Orion due to schedule and funding problems, and b) cause a slip in US launches to LEO, with unnecessary money sent to Russia. All unnecessary, since existing launchers can both build an International Exploration station in lunar orbit, or encounter an asteroid in lunar orbit.