House Pentagon Bill Serves Up Pork Even the Pentagon Doesn’t Want
The House of Representatives passed a Pentagon Spending bill 400-30 this week that includes billions of dollars in spending that the Pentagon doesn’t want.
While money for additional F-22s was deleted, some of that was turned into spare parts for the F-22. Additional C-17 cargo planes and an alternate engine for the F-35 are included, even though the Department of Defense says we don’t need them. New presidential helicopters at almost half a billion dollars each that are unwanted overbudget toys made it into the bill.
Rep John Murtha of Pennsylvania insists that we must complete paying for programs that have proven they don’t work because otherwise we have to acknowledge that they were a complete waste of money from that start. But since the corporate backers are paying for his campaigns, he wants us to keep throwing good money after bad.
Additionally, the bill contains over 1100 earmarks worth about $2.7 billion. Rep. Jeff Flake tried to add amendments to remove the earmarks, but was voted down overwhelmingly by both parties, once again proving we have the best representation money can buy.