Posted on 03/08/2008 4:24:09 AM PST by tobyhill
WASHINGTON - Angry Boeing supporters are vowing revenge against Republican presidential candidate John McCain over Chicago-based Boeing's loss of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the parent company of European plane maker Airbus.
There are other targets for their ire — the Air Force, the defense secretary and even the entire Bush administration.
But Boeing supporters in Congress are directing their wrath at McCain, the Arizona senator and nominee in waiting, for scuttling an earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers. Boeing now will miss out on a deal that it says would have supported 44,000 new and existing jobs at the company and suppliers in 40 states.
"I hope the voters of this state remember what John McCain has done to them and their jobs," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., whose state would have been home to the tanker program and gained about 9,000 jobs.
"Having made sure that Iraq gets new schools, roads, bridges and dams that we deny America, now we are making sure that France gets the jobs that Americans used to have," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. "We are sending the jobs overseas, all because John McCain demanded it."
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a competition with Boeing Feb. 29 to build the refueling planes in one of the biggest Pentagon contracts in decades. The unexpected decision has sparked outrage from union halls to the halls of Congress over the impact on U.S. jobs, prestige and national security. EADS and Northrop say about 60 percent of their tanker will be built in the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Why would they need to be in Mobile?
Mobile?
Dude, what part of "Melbourne Fla." don't you understand?
Sorry. I thought you were implying that they would move... While the Gulf is nice I sure would hate to move from Melbourne to Mobile.
Sorry. I thought you were implying that they would move... While the Gulf is nice I sure would hate to move from Melbourne to Mobile.
I apologize. Now that I look at it again, the words "out of" could have been taken several ways.
I’m very happy for you, I guess.
They just got a little more ammo for the effort. Only hope now is that the NYT made the story up...
“WASHINGTON — A co-chairman of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and other top campaign advisers and supporters were lobbyists for the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, part of a group that beat out Boeing for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force.”
NGC is claiming that this win will employ 48,000 people in direct and indirect jobs in the United States. This isn't a foreign built aircraft.
Boeing and the Democrats are spinning about 90% lies and 10% truth.
This might even bring some commercial A330 assembly business to the United States, since American labor is cheaper than European, and they are assembling commercial A330s, and then transferring them to a NGC facility to convert them into military tankers.
“In the midst of the firestorm that is the contested U.S. Air Force KC-45 refueling tanker program, the first of the new aircraft has been sent to Germany for its cargo conversion.”
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