Editors Across the Country Agree: Kill the Raptor

Earlier this week, the Department of Defense's (DoD) Acquisition Chief told the Boston Globe that fixing DoD's notorious procurement problems means getting programs right at the start (the intention of the Weapons Acquisition Reform Act) and having the discipline to stop programs that are no longer needed. DoD and the White House have repeatedly demonstrated that they have the discipline, and unsurprisingly, Congress is largely demonstrating that they don't. The vote on whether to put $1.75 billion for F-22s back into operations and maintenance (O&M) funds is expected to occur late Monday, so there's still time for the Senate to demonstrate discipline. Pierre Sprey has repeatedly pointed out the problem of political engineering, and he reiterated his point to the Washington Post last week:

Its troubles have been detailed in dozens of Government Accountability Office reports and Pentagon audits. But Pierre Sprey, a key designer in the 1970s and 1980s of the F-16 and A-10 warplanes, said that from the beginning, the Air Force designed it to be "too big to fail, that is, to be cancellation-proof."

Lockheed farmed out more than 1,000 subcontracts to vendors in more than 40 states, and Sprey -- now a prominent critic of the plane -- said that by the time skeptics "could point out the failed tests, the combat flaws, and the exploding costs, most congressmen were already defending their subcontractors' " revenues.

But we've been hearing from many offices on the Hill and seeing in newspapers across the country that there seems to be a different kind of political engineering occurring, with many constituents and editorial boards saying it's time to put national security needs over parochial interests. With the help of a couple of our stellar interns, POGO put together a list of newspapers that have said they support the decision of two secretaries of Defense, two Presidents, three chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the current secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force to stop buying F-22s.

Here's the list, in alphabetical order by state. We will try to continue to update the list over the weekend.

Alabama: The Birmingham News, "Why bail out banks and not protect soldiers?"

Alaska: Juneau Empire, "Don't build more F-22s"

Florida: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "Congress' fighter jet overkill"

Georgia: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, "The question isn't that hard"; and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Gates, Obama, McCain fight for those on the front line"

Illinois: Chicago Sun-Times, "U.S. doesn't need even more F-22s"

Indiana: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, "Clipping Raptor's wings is right move for Defense"

Massachusetts: Boston Globe, "Pork Barreling: Shoot Down This Appropriation"; Boston Herald, "Ground this jet proposal; and Berkshire Eagle, "F-22 shouldn't fly"

Missouri: St. Louis Times-Dispatch, "Gates signals dark days for military-industrial complex"

Nevada: Las Vegas Sun, "Threatened veto is justified: Obama correct to argue against additional fighter jets that aren’t needed"

New Hampshire: New Hampshire Business Review, "Bring it on: N.H. defense firms like what they see in new budget priorities"

New Jersey: New Jersey Star Ledger, "F-22 Raptors: Shoot down wasteful defense spending"

New Mexico: Santa Fe New Mexican, "An old air warrior says 'enough' to F-22"

New York: New York Post, "Can't Fly, Won't Die: The F-22 Is Armored In Pork"

North Carolina: Asheville Citizen Times, "Gates' sense on defense budget should be heeded"

Ohio: Columbus Dispatch, "Change strategy; Congress needs to resist political pressure and make needed military changes"

Oregon: The Oregonian, "Obama vs. the contractors"

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Enquirer, "Change and Cut Spending" and "A Jet Even The Military Doesn't Want"

Rhode Island: Providence Journal, "Editorial: Balance of power"

Tennessee: Knoxville News Sentinel, "Editorial: The right weapon for the right war"

Texas: San Antonio Express News, "Nation's defense is first priority"

Washington: Tacoma News Tribune, "Defense secretary right to retarget spending"

And beyond that, there's also the New York Times ("$1.75 Billion Boondoggle"), USA Today ("Our view on military spending: Dogfight over Raptor typifies defense excess"), and the Washington Post ("No More F-22s").

-- Mandy Smithberger

(A big thank-you to John, Marc, and Nina for compiling these articles)