lots of peoples messages snipped

The space shuttle and the ISS don't address this issue. If the US were
serious about manned space exploration, they would help private
industry develope manned vehicles. That's one of the things about the
Bush program. He can get rid of the shuttle and make NASA a steady
customer of private companies rather than a well-funded rival who can
shut down the market for decades.

NASA is a steady customer of private companies. Most of NASA's money,
for its large projects like Shuttle and ISS, in fact the vast majority
of its money goes to large companies. I'm not sure what you mean here.

Anyway guys, about the Shuttle and ISS, you don't need to spend any
time developing some strange new launch vehicle, like SSTO or
something. I mean, in cost per kilogram, using the Saturn V would
apparently be better than the Shuttle, if I remember correctly. And we
can certainly do better than that.

In my view we should simply switch back to expendables. There is no
reason to be using the Shuttle. It just makes no sense economically.
Meanwhile we can try developing better options to replace the
expendables.