Tracked the article down. It's more McCain tinkering. We are lucky indeed that idiot didn't win the nomination in 2000. The F-22 would have been long since cancelled were that the case.
"Congress Should Rethink Lockheed Plane, McCain Says (Update1)
April 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Congress should consider canceling Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F/A-22 fighter airplane to help pay for needed troop increases in Iraq, Senator John McCain said.
``We may have to cancel this airplane that's going to cost between $250 million and $300 million a copy,'' McCain, the No. 2 Republican on the armed services committee, said on NBC's `Meet the Press.'
The F/A-22, conceived during the Reagan administration to counter Soviet MiG jets, is to replace the F-15C as the top U.S. air-to-air fighter. The $257 million plane, the most expensive ever, is being tested by the Pentagon to determine whether it should proceed into full production.
McCain, of Arizona, said President George W. Bush should send more troops to Iraq after more than 40 Americans were killed there last week. Increasing the number of soldiers and Marines will cost money and widen the federal deficit, he said, making it necessary to cut other Pentagon expenditures.
``We've got to change the way that we do business and put priority where it belongs, and that is making sure that we succeed in Iraq'' McCain said.
U.S. Senator Pat Roberts said on CBS's `Face the Nation' he has ``a problem'' with sending in more troops.
``It isn't so much how many troops, but the troops that are trained to do the job in the urban warfare and the asymmetrical warfare used by the terrorists,'' said Roberts, a Kansas Republican. ``I think there's been a suggestion by Senator McCain to simply cancel the F-22 and put more troops in there.''
Additional Troops
Additional troops would require making ``tough choices,'' McCain said on `Meet the Press.'
``During the Vietnam War, they accused Lyndon Johnson of employing a strategy of guns and butter,'' McCain said. ``Well, now we're employing the strategy of guns and pork. Look at the highway bill that had 3,000 pork-barrel projects on it.''
The F/A-22 program constitutes less than 5 percent of Lockheed's earnings, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. analyst Joseph Nadol has said. Jeff Adams, a spokesman for Lockheed, didn't return calls to his office seeking comment.
Congress's research arm, the General Accounting Office, said last month the U.S. Air Force had failed to provide a thorough, post-Cold War rationale for why the F/A-22 should proceed into full production.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Neil Roland in Washington at
nroland@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor of this story:
Robin Meszoly at
rmeszoly@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 11, 2004 16:27 EDT"
"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."
Kipling-
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