POGO and Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) just sent a letter to the Senate asking them to delete funding for the F-22 from the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010. Our letter raises many of the concerns we've expressed on the blog and on our twitter feed about how the F-22 is being funded through smoke and mirrors budgeting by relying on anticipated savings from procurement reform that the Congressional Budget Office said there was no basis for determining. Additionally, we question the Senate's decision to take funds from the Joint Strike Fighter management reserve fund, which may disrupt its development.
But most importantly, we urge the Senate not to take money from operations and maintenance (O&M) accounts to fund a fighter jet that the Department of Defense doesn't even want. Unfortunately, taking funds from the accounts that most directly affect our troops to fund parochial interests is an all-too-familiar Congressional budget tactic, as we saw in 2006 when Congress opted to trade night vision goggles for Ospreys.
-- Mandy Smithberger
At least the F-22 is a flying airplane. What squadron is that F-35 you love so much flying in? Oh yeah, it's a paper airplane. It's still many years from being operational. And how much will it cost? $35 million like they've advertised for years or $120 million like the prototypes cost?
Posted by: Dfens | Jul 09, 2009 at 03:24 PM