|
Can I just say that the whole F22 debate makes me angry? If the military doesn't want the planes, don't make the planes! The senators are so worried about the jobs (or more accurately: more worried that they'll lose their next election because of the jobs that might be lost)that will be lost if we stop making them, but c'mon! Why waste money on something we don't need?? I understand wanting to save jobs, but can't you create just as many jobs by buying a different model of plane (one they actually want and use), or some other defense equipment?
The fact that this is even a debate blows my mind. All these senators whine about the national deficit, whine about bloated spending bills, whine about fiscal irresponsibility, and then whine that much louder when the military practically begs them to stop funding these planes. How can you be any more fiscally irresponsible than that? To me, that kind of hypocrisy would appear to be political suicide, and yet here are all these senators, in both parties, digging in their heels and insisting on funding these planes.
I realize that this kind of thing happens all the time. There were soooo many structures in the village we visited in Alaska that were there for no other reason than that Congress decided the village needed them -- the village never asked for them, and half of them were sitting empty and unused. But the fact that it happens so often is precisely why this kind of thing upsets me.
Saxby Chambliss even said something to the effect that it doesn't matter whether Defense wants them or not, because it's Congress that sets the budget, and they're not going to not pay for something just because Defense tells them they don't want it. Seriously?
I'm not against F22s or anything (moreso than any other weapon), but if the Secretary of Defense says we have enough, then we have enough.
|