Senate Votes To Kill F-22 Update: "A Very Good Day For The ChiComs"

Hey, who needs more of the most advanced fighters in the air today or tens of thousands of related jobs? Not Obama!

The Senate on Tuesday voted to strip $1.75 billion on seven additional F-22 jets that President Obama said was unnecessary and would doom a $680 bill authorizing defense spending plans for the coming fiscal year.

The 58-40 vote prevents Obama from carrying out a threat to use the first veto of his presidency if senators had kept the designation in the defense bill.

...According to Lockheed Martin Corp., the main contractor, 25,000 people are directly employed in building the plane, and another 70,000 have indirect links, particularly in Georgia, Texas and California. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a supporter of the program, said there are 1,000 suppliers in 44 states.

Dodd, speaking on the Senate floor last week, questioned why Congress should approve $65 billion to prop up the automobile industry but can't spend $1.75 billion to support an important segment of the aerospace industry.

Obama just gave a statement about this and crowed about cutting what he termed a "waste" of money on an "outdated" program. This administration can't even find $100 million (less than the NY Yankees payroll) to "cut" across the government but they are awful quick to cut high end defense spending as 'waste'. Well, at least we've finally found some kind of spending Obama doesn't like. I guess there was no way for ACORN to muscle in on that sweet, sweet F-22 cash.

I get that Gates and others say the Raptor isn't any good in Iraq or Afghanistan but we aren't going to be fighting there forever. We simply can't assume that we'll never need the Raptor (Hello, China!) or that the JSF will be the end all and be all (they are different planes, with different roles).

It seems keeping your options open, especially until the JSF actually enters service, would be a good idea.

Update: We are screwed.

Remember, surrender isn't an accident, it's a plan.

I know "It's fucking cool" isn't a strategic metric but if it were, the F-22 would have survived.

posted by DrewM. at 12:16 PM

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