John Nichols: Senate Rejects F-22 Boondoggle

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from The Nation:




Senate Rejects F-22 Boondoggle
posted by John Nichols on 07/21/2009 @ 3:01pm


After years of rubberstamping even the most ridiculously expensive and unnecessary allocations to enrich defense contractors -- and in so doing extend the reach of the military-industrial complex about which former President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned -- the US Senate on Tuesday actually rejected a useless military spending scheme.

As part of the broader debate over the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, the Senate voted by a 58-40 margin in favor of Michigan Democrat Carl Levin's proposal to strike $1.75 billion in funding for more F-22 fighter jets.

Designed in response to the fantasy that the US Air Force would be fighting high-tech dogfights with Soviet fighter jets, the F-22 has never been flown in combat or deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

But, until now, Congress had continued to allocate cash -- in multi-billion-dollar increments -- to Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor that, using comic-book and video-game marketing, dubs the jet fighters "Raptors." .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/454196/senate_rejects_f_22_boondoggle