To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Good article. Boeing was acting in bad faith. Ripping off the taxpayers. Shame on them.
btt
Well, here’s one thing I certainly WILL agree with McCain about. I’ve personally witnessed how DoD contracts are manipulated, usually with Congressional help. Always said that if the taxpayers really knew how much of this goes on, Washington would be facing an armed rebellion.
If McCain DOES win the Presidency, I hope he gets well and truly stuck into cleaning up the fraud and backscratching that goes on, and blows the whistle on the Murthas in Congress. Maybe he’ll cut a deal with Conservatives for support in this crusade, which is LONG overdue, and signs up to prevent our country be over-run with illegal aliens. Would be a win-win for all of us.
BTW it’s quite amazing to see how many DoD contractors have set up offices in Murtha’s district. Given that Johnstown PA is the place you would stick it if the Earth needed an enema, I can’t imagine anybody going there voluntarily.
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On March 5, the powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel, John Murtha, summoned Air Force officials to explain their decision to award the contract to Airbus. The hearing was a circus of accusations and I-told-you-so's, with mostly Democratic lawmakers lecturing top Air Force officials on how they should have reached their decision. Through it all, the service's top acquisition official, Sue Payton, stuck to her guns, repeatedly telling the bitter lawmakers she had adhered strictly to contracting laws and that, in the end, the Northrop Grumman/EADS team had "brought their A-game."
It was Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who lathered on the criticism of McCain, blaming him for outsourcing American defense business, delaying the Air Force's tanker replacement, and costing the United States a purported 40,000 jobs.
"Because of the individual in the other body stopping what the Air Force and this committee agreed to is [sic] costing billions of dollars, and we're at a point where we don't know how long it's going to take to get these [KC-135s] out of the air," Murtha whined, blaming McCain instead of the Air Force or Boeing for the entire fiasco.
To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Living in KS, I get only the Boeing side of this. (big factory in Wichita)The KS pols are really throwing the bull. However, from the national media, it looks like Boenig screwed itself with crooked business practices and no-bid contracts.
“China now has a role in all current Boeing models,” he added.”
Oh yeah, we should really take seriously all this whining about exported jobs on Boeing’s behalf.
“According to Burns, Boeing currently has 170 direct Boeing employees in China and 3,000 people working in Boeing joint ventures.”
Boeing is a leader in exporting high tech and high paying US jobs.
http://forums.industryweek.com/showthread.php?t=1331
If Murtha thinks something is wrong with the deal, it must be ok. Whatever he is for, I am against and vice versa.
I'm disappointed that the truth seekers at the Weekly Standard didn't mention the role of Linda Daschle (ex-Senator's wife and overpaid college-dropout lobbyist for the well-connected law dogs at Baker, Donelson) in this stinking Boeing deal that only an amoral crook like John Murtha could love.
Shame on you, Boeing!
I wonder how (and how much) Murtha was going to profit from this, because he certainly would have gotten something for his help.
Nothing about this deal makes sense from a user standpoint, to me. First off, why did Boeing stick to the B767 when the Air Force wanted a B777 variant? And if a B767, why the -200ER and not the more AirBus comparable -300ER, or better yet the -400ER which needed orders anyway? Why try to get the USAF to buy the low-end model?
I am usually a “McCain hater” but unless we find out McCain twisted someone’s arm illegally, I don’t see anything that McCain did wrong in this deal. The Air Force made the decision.
However, the author of this article did not bother to mention that the US government is suing EADS for unfair trade (received illegal govermnent subsidies).
Furthermore, EADS sold Nickel 63 and so-called “Tritium Targets” – both crucial to triggering a nuclear explosion – to the South Korean firm Kyung-Do Enterprises, which sold themto Parto Namaje Tolua, a front for the state-owned Iranian firm Partoris.
Russia owns 5% of Airbus. What does the Air Force comment? That it wasn’t their responsibility to take US national security into account. That is really a major WTF.
Boeing is dirty, but to me Airbus is a bigger worry, especially given the Air Force’s indifference to security.