Well, the VentureStar also was an over-budget NASA project. Yes it was very innovative indeed. I guess it was nearly 90% completed. But it also suffered from significant technological problems which actually caused the cancelation (mass, the tanks, etc....).
The success of multinational corporations can already be seen: the ISS. If this is done commercially we can safe a lot of more money. Whilst commercially does not necessarily mean no tax money, but just a different way to assign money.
Just look at Falcon 9. Its development costs is only 400 million dollars, which even includes the development of the Dragon capsule. Launch cost is more than three times less than the Soyuz launch cost whilst it has a higher payload capability. I can only imagine how costly this would have been under the NASA regime with all the jobs and contractual partners hiding behind the project...
