There are several very practical ideas about how to do that (not the X-30) on the drawing boards.
My favorite being the turbojet powered craft that would launch lightly loaded, hit a KC-135 for fuel top off, and light a rocket in its tail to boost to 300k feet and mach 6, where it kicks out an upper stage that will go into orbit.
Now THAT is a practical method to get small payloads into orbit. And since you could fly it almost every day, assembling larger structures in orbit is a no-brainer.
But the article is right, the AF will not want it. But not because they're trying to protect turf (indeed, such a vehicle could be the most important thing they flew), but because if such a thing were built, the Chineese, and worse, Al-Quaeda would buy one quickly.
Quite simply, space fairing governments want space travel expensive and rare, so only they can afford it.