|
Edited on Tue May-08-07 09:45 AM by greyhound1966
would begin to notice that all the trillions we've pounded down this rat hole called the defense budget, is just disappearing. But who, you might ask, is responsible for spending all this money we don't have, who's on the armed services committees? Oh yes, that would be;
The Senate The Democrats Carl Levin (Michigan) Chairman
Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts) Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia) Joseph I. Lieberman (Connecticut) Jack Reed (Rhode Island) Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii) Bill Nelson (Florida) E. Benjamin Nelson (Nebraska) Evan Bayh (Indiana) Hillary Rodham Clinton (New York) Mark L. Pryor (Arkansas) Jim Webb (Virginia) Claire McCaskill (Missouri)
The Republiks John McCain (Arizona) Ranking Member
John W. Warner (Virginia) James M. Inhofe (Oklahoma) Jeff Sessions (Alabama) Susan M. Collins (Maine) John Ensign (Nevada) Saxby Chambliss (Georgia) Lindsey O. Graham (South Carolina) Elizabeth Dole (North Carolina) John Cornyn (Texas) John Thune (South Dakota) Mel Martinez (Florida)
The House Democrats Ike Skelton, Missouri, Chairman John Spratt, South Carolina Solomon P. Ortiz, Texas Gene Taylor, Mississippi Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii Marty Meehan, Massachusetts Silvestre Reyes, Texas Vic Snyder, Arkansas Adam Smith, Washington Loretta Sanchez, California Mike McIntyre, North Carolina Ellen O. Tauscher, California Robert A. Brady, Pennsylvania Robert Andrews, New Jersey Susan A. Davis, California Rick Larsen, Washington Jim Cooper, Tennessee Jim Marshall, Georgia Madeleine Z. Bordallo, Guam Mark Udall, Colorado Dan Boren, Oklahoma Brad Ellsworth, Indiana Nancy Boyda, Kansas Patrick Murphy, Pennsylvania Hank Johnson, Georgia Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire Joe Courtney, Connecticut David Loebsack, Iowa Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Elijah Cummings, Maryland Kendrick Meek, Florida Kathy Castor, Florida
Republks Duncan Hunter, California, Ranking Member Jim Saxton, New Jersey John M. McHugh, New York Terry Everett, Alabama Roscoe G. Bartlett, Maryland Buck McKeon, California Mac Thornberry, Texas Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Robin Hayes, North Carolina Ken Calvert, California Jo Ann Davis, Virginia W. Todd Akin, Missouri J. Randy Forbes, Virginia Jeff Miller, Florida Joe Wilson, South Carolina Frank A. LoBiondo, New Jersey Tom Cole, Oklahoma Rob Bishop, Utah Michael Turner, Ohio John Kline, Minnesota Candice S. Miller, Michigan Phil Gingrey, Georgia Mike Rogers, Alabama Trent Franks, Arizona Thelma Drake, Virginia Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Michael Conaway, Texas Geoff Davis, Kentucky
Apparently they can agree on one thing, nobody's going to start asking questions about where our money went.
The vaunted F-22 is the air superiority aircraft for the 21st century that is to replace the the aging F-15. Design specs were created in 1981 and Lockheed won the contract in 1991 and the first production craft was delivered in 2003. The original plan was for 750 aircraft to be produced, but that number has shrunk to 183. At a cost of $361 million per copy (GAO figure includes all costs) it is the most expensive fighter ever produced by several orders of magnitude. Even at the current actual copy cost of $120 million per plane, it is over 4 times more expensive than the plane it is to replace, the F-15 Tomcat. A plane incidentally that has an actual combat record of 104 kills with not one loss.
So to sum up, our military geniuses, with bi-partisan congressional support going back over 25 years, have blown our children's future in order to buy 183 aircraft to replace ~450 of the world's most deadly air fighters, an aircraft that is so superior to anything else flying that literally nothing can touch it. It is an aircraft designed to fight a war that nobody else on the planet can ever hope to win.
One last thing, this boondoggle isn't designed for ground support, the A-10's role.
|