Senate Beats Back Military-Industrial Complex In Historic Vote

[Boomerang Diddle]

President Obama won a major victory in the Senate Tuesday in a dogfight that has major, long-term implications for his agenda.

The Senate, by a vote of 58-40, approved an amendment proposed by Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to strip $1.75 billion in funding for the F-22 fighter. Levin worked hand in hand to kill the F-22 money with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"There was an extensive effort by the White House," said Levin. "The president really needed to win this vote, not just in terms of the merits of the F-22 issue itself, but in terms of the reform agenda."

The vote had become a proxy fight against the power of the military-industrial complex, a term coined by President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/21/senate-beats-back-militar_n_242135.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Now we should re-think the Air Force. nt

[choie]

2. Democrats who voted for the F-22

Sens. Chris Dodd (Conn.), Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray (Wash.), Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall (N.M.) (Udall's Colorado cousin, Mark, voted to kill it), Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Max Baucus and Jon Tester (Mont.), Bob Byrd (W.V.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.).

Barbara Boxer??? Shame on her.

[damntexdem]

3. Hurrah. Now hate-crimes legislation in the bill won't be affected by a veto.

And, yeah, billions of dollars will be saved. But that's not the big news.

[lindisfarne]

4. NY Times has a more informative article; there is still money committed to F22s. See link:

The House has voted to keep the plane alive by providing $369 million to buy advanced parts for 12 more F-22s. Ultimately, a conference committee will decide the next step.

Still, military analysts said that the supporters of the plane — led by Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia, where the final assembly of the planes is done — had come much closer to saving the F-22 than most experts had expected when Mr. Gates announced plans in April to cancel it and other major weapons systems.

Critics have long portrayed the F-22 as a cold war relic. The plane was designed in the late 1980s, when the Air Force envisioned buying up to 750 of the planes to dominate dogfights with Soviet jets.

The F-22 can perform tactical operations at higher altitudes than other fighters, and it can cruise at supersonic speeds without using telltale afterburners. With a stealthy skin that scatters radar detection signals, it was also meant to sneak in and destroy enemy surface-to-air missile defenses, clearing the way for bombers and other planes to follow.

But the F-22 has never been used in war, and in recent years, the Pentagon’s focus had shifted to the fights against Islamic insurgents. The Bush administration also tried to halt its production.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/business/22defense.html?hp

[EFerrari]

5. That's impressive. I thought it was a done deal.

Well done!

[Political Tiger]

6. A great victory for Obama and especially the country! n/t