US Astronauts to Russian Space Program?

                Recently, I have been informed that NASA might send some of their astronauts to the Russian space program to help explore the future of space exploration further more.  I hope this doesn't happen for several reasons.  One, I think the United States space program (NASA) is a lot more technologically advanced than the Russian Space Program.  We have been and seen things that the Russian space program has never done before.  We were the first team to land on the moon planet and we built the first international space station.  That is saying a lot about our program and what we can accomplish in such little time.  Just think if we can land on the moon and travel safely back to our planet, there is no reason we can't go beyond to other planets in our solar system.  Second, we will lose a lot of our space exploration hype.  The United States has always been the top dog on space exploration and travel but if we shut down NASA for good then we will be over taken by Russia or China soon.  I believe we are in such a huge debt already that a few space missions won't affect us that much economically.  It is a lot of money but its good money well spent.  Our country is known for our space program and I would hate to see that go down the drain.  We need to buckle up as a country and figure out a way we can still fund the NASA space program because without it, I don't think the future for space exploration will be as efficient.  Sending United States astronauts to a different space program will not solve much, we really need NASA back on the grid; discovering new and exciting things.  Space has a LOT more to discover and I truly believe the United States has a big part in the future for outer space exploration.