The Pentagon says we don’t need any more F-22 fighters and President Obama has threatened to veto any defense appropriations bill that includes funding for more of them. However, the Appropriations Committee of both Houses put money in for more F-22’s. The Senate just had a vote on a Levin-McCain amendment to strip the funding. It passed.
It should be pretty easy to identify the states that play a part in building the F-22’s. There are no more offensive appropriations that those that are for weapons that we don’t need. But when Barbara Boxer is willing to vote for wasteful Pentagon spending to protect jobs in her state, you know how corrupted the system is.
It also occurred to me that the F-22 program might be a front for covert intel funding. Those items are never in the budget overtly – they’re usually buried in other programs. That might be why it kept persisting, even though no one seemed to want it.
What’s with the 2 from HI? No military industry there, is there? Afraid of the vote from the bases?
The lopsided total gave the likes of Boxer, Dood, and Udall a free vote to placate their homestate industries. I wonder how they’d have gone if their votes were crucial? There would have been a lot more pressure from both sides.
with this economy there’s a persuasion that every job counts, especially my job, vs cutting back wasteful spending. There’s no where to go once you lose a job, no matter how wasteful that job was.
But at least some of those jobs are supposed to go over to the F-35 program.
I just want to take this opportunity to say how wonderful it is to see Franken on that list.
YeHaw!!
Years ago Lockheed got a contract to build postal trucks. Granted, the LLVs had design flaws and they were overpriced, but I like the concept. Get some of these corporations out of the war business and into the peace business. Have them build high-speed rail cars, tracks, efficient buses and trolleys. And solar panels. They should be giving away solar panels to anyone who wants to slap one on his or her roof.
Grumman used to build solar water heaters.
Kit Bond? KIT BOND??
There are some very interesting splits on the bill:
NC (Burr Nay, Hagan Yea)
IA (Grassley Nay, Harkin Yea)
OK (Imhofe Nay, Coburn Yea)
FL (Martinez Nay, Nelson Yea)
NE (Johanns Nay, Nelson Yea)
WV (Byrd Nay, Rockefeller Yea)