Posted on 11/13/2010 5:47:29 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The takeover of the U.S. House by Republicans could prompt a revival of the fight for additional funding for the Marietta-built F-22 stealth fighter, U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey said Friday.
U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Republican from Marietta. AJC file This isnt just for the sake of home-cooking, but also for the sake of the country, Gingrey said in a telephone interview.
But Gingrey conceded that concerns over spending and the federal deficit could make the funding battle a difficult one. The planes have a price tag of $120 million each. We would have to look at it with a very, very sharp pencil, he said. It would take some negotiating.
Suggestions from the debt commission, made public this week, may hold some possibilities A three-year freeze on federal pay and a 10 percent reduction of the federal workforce are things that really get me excited, the Marietta congressman said.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.ajc.com ...
The AF has purchased enough F22’s for the time being. We can't put more eggs into that 500 million each basket. Instead of stimulus spending I would have much preferred the money be spent on defense, but now we are out of money to spend and cuts are necessary.
The national debt is killing us more effectivly than any foriegn military can right now. It is our number one national security issue. The focus needs to be on cutting the debt.
The congressman feels he can "pay for" the extra F-22s with cuts to other programs, but there are two problems with that. The first is that if he actually attempts this, then the movement to cut earmarks and pork is dead already, because if he gets his pet project brought back from the dead, then all cooperation is off the table for other cuts to anyone else's pet project. Second, if he can pay for this project with budget cuts in other areas, then we can also not spend the money at all and reduce the deficit even more.
How do military salaries and benefits stack up against the private sector? I don’t know, but as an anecdote, the people I’ve known who were in for a while seemed to be doing quite well vis-a-vis their neighbors. The GI Bill could certainly be too generous. Our servicemen are (generally) great folks, but in the current environment they might also be overpaid, just like any other government employee.
Jimmy Effin' Peanut Farmer did it to me when I was in the military.
Double digit inflation, our dollar plumeting, making living in Europe even more unaffordable, and good old Peanut D!ck says "let us set the example by holding the line on military wages."
The F-22 will be in the next Congressional budget like I’ve been saying for over a year now...since I’ve known the Dims would lose Congress.
$120 mill sounds a little low. The numbers I’ve heard that Rand has put together have stated that to restart production and build another 75 planes would come in at over $200 mill per copy. Heck, a guy can spend a day seeing India on that kind of money.
we need to keep it on the back burner for the time being with the understanding that it will be produced again some day. perhaps they can call it the phoenix then ? It’s the baddest fighter jet of all time and it’s ours. You don’t let that go. You improve upon it.
I wonder how much money we would have for F22s if we pulled out of Korea? Japan maybe?
The US needs to have a presence there to deter North Korea and China.
Unfortunately, thanks to the Democrats and Obama... the F-22 production line was shut down.
So to get it back up and running would cost quite a chunk of change... on top of the cost of each extra fighter.
Well, a starting GS-1 makes $17,803 (pre-tax).
That’s pretty close to Wal-Mart wages already.
Here’s the 2010 GS pay table:
http://www.opm.gov/oca/10tables/pdf/gs.pdf
Here is the 2010 military pay chart. Mind you, this is for people whose job is to potential *DIE* for you.
http://militarypay.defense.gov/pay/bp/paytables/Paytable_2010.pdf
(the table shows monthly salary, not yearly)
Honestly in the grand scheme of things our fighting forces are of 2ndary important to our nuclear arsenal. If we can’t preserve and upgrade our stockpile and their delivery systems(missiles) it really won’t matter what fighter jets we got.
So why should we resume production of the F-22 just because it means jobs? Shouldn't the private sector be generating those as well?
Yeah, but the UFO guys keep switching them off or retargeting them in the silos; Ours AND the enemy's.
Canceling the F-22 and eventually building the lower performing, lesser capable F-35 only makes sense. We should surrender our superiority now, rather than use it when we need it, like the good little one world progressives we should strive to be.
After all, why have an assault weapon when a slingshot will do the same job? Besides, assault weapons make people feel uncomfortable and that's just wrong. Haven't learned anything from the lessons our history has tried to teach us?
Just noticed your user name. heh heh
So...it's up to the government sector to create jobs by buying weapon systems that the Pentagon may or may not need?
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