Re: in the absence of those sweet, sweet taxpayer dollars
"What's new? Private company can't/won't do shit without government backing."
Governments are the biggest purchasers of launch services. BO isn't saying that they can't finish New Glenn, they are saying it will take longer to do on spec with no guaranteed work for it. If New Sheppard starts earning revenue, maybe there will be more money to throw at New Glenn. The sub-orbital flights Blue Origin have done have looked really clean while SpaceX's Starship have been a hot mess. (I used to work on rockets, but not at either company).
In the US, NASA and other agencies do not build their own rockets. They head up projects and hire companies to build to spec or use existing vehicles. The Saturn V and Shuttle were built to a NASA design, but everything else has gone up on stock vehicles.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
