grgwsngton2
Again, I have to say I really hate how my previous comment sounded. There's just a lot to this and I didn't want to try and defend the very idea while arguing about government reform because it would have been an uphill battle. Sorry for how rude that sounded.
The basic idea, though, is that NASA (while awesome) has been building a heavy lift but also disposable and expensive new rocket. There are a lot of traditional contractors (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ATK) across the country helping to build the rocket. This means jobs. So congress supports the program, despite its cost, because it means jobs. This stifles innovation as evidenced by what SpaceX has been able to do on a fraction of the budget. This branches and goes deeper with organizations like the ULA which charges several times that of SpaceX but has failed, completely, to innovate. Anyways by the time NASA's new rocket will be ready SpaceX will be have been launching Falcon Heavy for years and possibly even launching the BFR. This means SpaceX will have more powerful, more reliable, reusable, cheaper rockets. All this time NASA has been unable to innovate because ??? and now the entire SLS is nothing more than a jobs program.