Source: Washington Post

When President Obama promised Wednesday to attack defense spending that he considers wasteful and inefficient, he opened a fight with key lawmakers from his own party.

It was Democrats who stuffed an estimated $524 million in defense earmarks that the Pentagon did not request into the 2008 appropriations bill, about $220 million more than Republicans did, according to an independent estimate. Of the 44 senators who implored Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in January to build more F-22 Raptors -- a fighter conceived during the Cold War that senior Pentagon officials say is not suited to probable 21st-century conflicts -- most were Democrats.

And last July, when the Navy's top brass decided to end production of their newest class of destroyers -- in response to 15 classified intelligence reports highlighting their vulnerability to a range of foreign missiles -- seven Democratic senators quickly joined four Republicans to demand a reversal. They threatened to cut all funding for surface combat ships in 2009.

Within a month, Gates and the Navy reversed course and endorsed production of a third DDG-1000 destroyer, at a cost of $2.7 billion.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/07/AR2009030702216.html?hpid=topnews

And I was disappointed in the citation from Obama. One would think that even as a short term senator he would have learned more about the defense acquisition process than it showed. It may well have been taken out of context. I would expect no less from the MSM.

That does not mean a 3rd will cost that much. The development/research costs will not need to be spent again.

The design process for the DDG-1000 is not finished, even though the first two keels have been laid. Exacerbating the problem is the length of time it takes to produce one. The longer it takes, the more engineering changes are made which drives costs through the roof.

The Pentagon spends as much money on research as it does on weapons procurement. The research objectives are science-fiction-style zap-anything-on-planet-in-a-second devices that are designed to meet only far fetched threats. The research is performed by the same corrupt defense contractors who sell the weapons, but with research there is no precise measurement to establish what is being achieved for all that money.

that the Pentagon doesn't want, that would suggest that some of the sacred Defense budget has more to do with pork than with actually protecting this country! That would mean that senators and representatives are spending our tax dollars to line the pockets of defense contractors and provide local jobs. That can't possibly be true, could it?

aircrafts with no use is that the bridges can be used by the taxpayers.

health care funding! HA!

these things are built or other sub-systems are made. We need good campaign finance reform or this shit will never end. rec'd

even more than Republicans (who use it to line the pockets of their donors). Dems typically view the projects as "stimulus" for their districts. This is going to be one of the reasons Obama will slow walk the withdrawal from Iraq/Afghanistan. A couple of wars that we are not really scared of but which we feel pretty good about ("Bad, Taliban! Bad! Oppressing those women!") is standard Democratic Party operation.

Both parties are good for business. They just vary in how good they also are for workers.

There have probably been frank discussions among the WH economic advisers about how badly the US economy would decline if all troops were to be brought home at once from Iraq and Afghanistan (though if they were smart they did not put it into writing) because it is true. Sudden withdrawal of all troops and an end to engagements away from home would cause the recession to worsen in the short run---and increase unemployment. It always does. And Obama knows that he is being judged on his economic performance, not his peace performance. The people who voted for him because he declared himself the peace candidate will stick with him. Who else will they vote for? Everyone else, who cares about the economy, will dump him if he does anything that makes it worse.

As for the foreign lives lost---only Jimmy Carter ever cared about the foreign lives. Foreigners can not vote.

I would rather have sensible projects rather than making sci-fi gadgets - just because you have an idea or can. Go for absolute needs, not wants. I believe that there are creative ways to help the economy, other than sci-fi gadgets that are stuck in the mold of the cold war.

I'm fed up reading about new gadgets.

The little people out here are not buying fancy gadgets for ourselves. Buckle up. Sorry if this means that someone's business goes down. We must be practical so there is more money to bail out the rich.

:banghead: :grr:

That'll be a great day.

.... this shit will continue.