The $1.45 trillion reason we can't have nice things

[kpete]

The F-35 will find itself outmaneuvered, outgunned, out of range, and visible to enemy sensors. Going forward, full investment in the F-35 would be to place a bad trillion-dollar bet on the future of airpower based on flawed assumptions and an underperforming aircraft. To avoid such a catastrophic outcome, Congress and DOD should begin the process of considering alternatives to a large-scale commitment to the F-35. Staying the present course may needlessly gamble away a sizable margin of American airpower at great expense and unnecessary risk to American lives.


page 2
http://nsnetwork.org/cms/assets/uploads/2015/08/F-35_FINAL.pdf
http://fortune.com/2015/08/14/f-35-joint-strike-fighter/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/15/1411025/-The-1-45-trillion-reason-we-can-t-have-nice-things

[gratuitous]

1. We can't feed, clothe or house our own citizens

But we can blow more than a trillion dollars on a useless defense project. Nice Christian nation we've styled.

Lockheed was smart to spread the production for this money pit over 45 states. That guarantees that Congress will never, ever put a stop to this endless drain on the Treasury, because jobs or something. Yeah, be careful driving over that bridge, and the asbestos your kid is exposed to at his crumbling school won't show up for a few decades, so it should all be good in the hood.

Now I have to go on Meet the Press and denounce all those moochers inconveniently starving in the streets.

[IDemo]

2. You will see Congress critters housing themselves with the DC homeless population

before you witness them cutting off funding for this flying pig.

[Hydra]

3. And it's just one project!

We probably could have funded a guaranteed minimum income on just that!

[onecaliberal]

5. You're right. It makes me so mad...

[world wide wally]

4. That much money could probably pay for every kid in the country to go to college for 4 years

[bvar22]

6. The F-35 is a DOG.

We would be better off economically and militarily buying our next gen fighter from the Chinese or Russians.
Theirs work, are much simpler and easier to service in a dispersed field.

[Rex]

7. If only somebody in govt cared enough to do something about it.

Sadly the MIC and Wall Street run things and decided only THEY can have nice things. We can have milkbones and bread.

[Octafish]

8. Don't worry, kpete. They'll only need $3.9 trillion to get things straightened out.

Then we can get to the other must-haves to help the rich keep getting rich and the rest of us made extinct.