U.S. to lose Mars race by 10 years?

Every time I see that the U.S. is not planning to send humans to Mars for over 23 years, I can't help but wonder what is taking so long... haven't they been working on this idea for years already? Anyways, I guess I'm no expert on this and they do have a lot to figure out. But according to this article, Russia's recent experiments on human spaceflight and prolonged isolation in preparation for a Mars trip are part of a coordinated international effort to send humans to Mars by the year 2020. I plan to try to find something else out about this, although I wasn't able to find much information other than this article. If it's true, how is it that Europe/SE Asia can work together to get people to Mars by 2020 and it's going to take the US until 2030? And if the cost is to high to send humans to Mars, why isn't the US collaborating more with other countries?