Leave it to McCain to talk about wrecking things in the military.
Posted on 02/24/2009 3:08:19 PM PST by rabscuttle385
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cost overruns on big-ticket Pentagon projects have left the U.S. military facing a budgetary "train wreck" at a time of growing budget deficits, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday.
McCain and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the cost of 95 major weapons systems -- ships, aircraft and armored vehicles -- have ballooned by a total of 30 percent in recent years, to about $1.3 trillion. The senators announced an effort, including legislation, to rein in that spending and tighten Defense Department oversight.
With U.S. troops fighting two wars overseas and personnel costs dominating the defense budget, "We're facing a train wreck," said McCain, the ranking Republican on the committee and the GOP's presidential candidate in 2008.
"We cannot continue on this path of escalating costs without at some point making some tough choices, which may endanger our nation's security," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Leave it to McCain to talk about wrecking things in the military.
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Have fun with this one.
If Senor Juan McCain does anything with Levin he is an even bigger RINO moron than I thought.
RNC head Steele needs to add Juan McCain to the list of Senators who need a primary challenger. Steele said Snowe, Collins and Specter may get challenges. I will believe it when i see it.
All you need when Bambi is ready to slice and dice the Military is an asshole that crashed 4 planes prior to being shot down yapping about cost overruns. I worked my butt off for this clown even though I have never supported him. I just couldn’t stand the alternative. Now that Bambi is running things our resident pussy can’t wait to help him. Bi-partisan my ass, if we were bi-partisan in 1776 we would still be speaking Cockney.
I was on the precommissioning crew of the USS Eisenhower. I think we can thank the unionized workforce of major systems suppliers for this mess. The rules for the Navy people were structured in such a way that if we noticed an error the correction of that error actually cost the Navy money unless we followed very strict guidelines in reporting that error.
High wages and regulations requiring purchases from union shops certainly raise the labor costs significantly. Couple that with milspec’s that in some cases seem out of touch with current manufacturing practices and the entire cost skyrockets.
It is also significant that there exist “Cost over-runs” at all. I would think a contract is a contract. Unless the purchaser alters the design specifications it would appear to me that the contracted price should be what it is. If I remember correctly the Eisenhower actually cost about double what the contracted price was when all the over runs were added in. I wish I could get contracts like that!
He's just adding to the Bipartisan, hand across the isle list:
McCain-Feingold
McCain-Kennedy
McCain-Lieberman
If McCain really wanted to be a maverick...
McCain-GOP
Nice to see that they have their priorities in the right places - it's all about jobs [votes] and not silliness such as national defense, health, or transportation.
My sentiments exactly! Trust me I know how it felt to work for McCain knowing I didn’t really like him but ZERO was so bad I swallowed hard. He should never have been put in Armed Services IMHO. Maybe if he wasn’t there, we would have the tanker in production.
2010: McCain lied. Troops died.
I wish I lived in Arizona so I could vote against that treacherous POS. Anyone, even the basest demonrat, would be preferable.
After being forced to vote for him once by the fools who selected him in the primary, being able to deny him a further chance to betray the gop would be a truly cathartic act.
I'm guessing that one of those planes was the one he lost on the Forrestal. The one where a missile from the other side of the deck accidentally fired and hit his fuel tank and dropped two 1000 lb bombs on the burning deck. This “asshole” escaped by walking down the refueling probe, jumping into the fire and rolling free. Then this “asshole” turned around and followed the fire crew back into the fire to try and save Fred White, the pilot of the plane next to his. One of the bombs cooked off, killing White and the fire crew and wounding McCain. Is this the “asshole” you're talking about, asshole?
McCain voted for the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) which was designed to allow the Armed Services to decide which bases to keep open based on the needs off the Services rather than politics. Unfortunately there were ways around BRAC and a powerful Senator could keep a base in his state, even if the Services decided another base would be better.
During the last round of BRAC there were very strong rumors that Luke was to be closed. Well, hell, nobody in Arizona was worried, we had John McCain. Former flyboy, Presidential candidate, Senator with seniority, Armed Services Committee, there wasn't any BRAC that was going to screw with us.
McCain had other ideas. He simply announced that he had voted for BRAC, that he would help make the pitch for keeping Luke but that BRAC's decision was final. He would have no part in subverting the Commission.
Integrity.
Sure is, the same asshole who lost two in training and one flat hatting. Lucky Daddy was a Four Star, when I went through you didn’t get more than one chance if you were the least bit to blame. Ya, that’s the asshole I’m talking about.
Cannot believe he wouldn’t fight to keep Luke but then John McCain never ceases to amaze me in the wrong way!
After he was shot down he had a get out of jail free card. Daddy was a Four Star. He refused. For five years he refused to go to the front of the line. For five years he took the beatings that he could have ended with one sentence. A child of privilege.
It was the military’s decision on whether or not to keep Luke or whether the functions could better be performed elsewhere. McCain helped make the case for Luke but he was clear that politics did not enter in the process. The BRAC decision was final. In this regard McCain was just like Goldwater.
Good points, I have always admired his guts him I just don’t like him.
Have a good night.
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