Fail! The $400 Billion Military Jet That Can't Fly in Cloudy Weather

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/fail-400-billion-military-jet-cant-fly-cloudy-weather



According to one of its supporters, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is not "what our troops need," is "too costly" and "poorly managed," and its "present difficulties are too numerous to detail."

The F-35 is a case study of government failure at all levels - civilian and military, federal, state, local, even airport authority. Not one critical government agency is meeting its obligation to protect the people it presumably represents. Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who wrote the F-35 critique above, is hardly unique as an illustration of how government fails, but he sees no alternative to failure.

Up for re-election in 2014 and long a supporter of basing the F-35 in Vermont, Leahy put those thoughts in a letter to a constituent made public March 13. This is Leahy's most recent public communication since December 2012, when he refused to meet with opponents of the F-35 and his web site listed a page of "public discussion" events mostly from the spring, including private briefings with public officials, without responding to any substantive issues.

The F-35 is a nuclear-capable weapon of mass destruction that was supposed to be the "fighter of the future" when it was undertaken in 2001. Now, more than a decade overdue and more than 100% over budget, the plane is expected to cost $1.5 trillion over its useful life, of which about $400 billion has already been spent.

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Cancel now, save a trillion

We have drones. We have F16s. If things get really scary, we can send Hillary with a dagger.

What more do we need?

[madokie]

2. but the Hill is getting old :-)

according to mitch baby that is
Oh I'll vote for her in '16 as sure as I'm sitting here on my ass now

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Please consider Ms. Warren in the primaries

We need Hill to stay rested in case the F16s prove insufficient.

[madokie]

6. My hope is they will join hands

Luv Sen. Warren too. After all down deep she is a fellow okie

[AnotherMcIntosh]

3. All that money squandered?

And President Obama can't even go on national TV, or otherwise contact Congressional leaders, and demand that the F-35 program be shut down?

Of course not.

He can't even close Gitmo.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Maybe if we tell him he can use the money to

build new prisons for pot smokers?

Other pot smokers, of course, not him.

(No, I'm not saying that our President is currently a pot smoker)

[magellan]

7. $33 billion a year for this broken toy so far

On the bright side, that's a steal compared to the $220 billion a year we've footed to date for the boondoggle in Iraq.

Just another of the many worthless yet sacrosanct defense expenses we're expected to pay for while American children go hungry and seniors and the disabled are threatened with further cuts.

[talkingmime]

8. It's a cold war relec 20 years in development and the costliest plane in history.

If Congress is serious about cutting spending, take the loss and dump the thing. It doesn't meet any current or foreseable need. All it is good for is funneling tax dollars into the pockets of the military industrial complex.