Posted on 02/16/2011 12:53:24 PM PST by george76
Barack Obama won a showdown vote Wednesday in the GOP-controlled House to kill a costly alternative engine for the Pentagon's next-generation fighter jet.
The win by Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates was a switch from where the House stood last year under Democratic control. It reflected a sustained administration push to win over the votes of scores of Republican freshmen elected last fall on campaign promises to cut the budget...
The 233-198 tally was a loss for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, whose state reaps about 1,000 jobs from the engine program, built by the General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce.
It was a big victory for lawmakers from Democrat-dominated Connecticut, where the main F-35 fighter engine is built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp. Former President George W. Bush had also tried to kill the second engine.
...
On Wednesday, Democrats scored a 228-203 victory to restore almost $300 million for police hiring grants. That amendment, by Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., shifted money from NASA to pay for the move. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, won a 305-127 vote to restore most of a 40 percent cut to the Economic Development Administration, which issues grants for job-creating projects in congressional districts across the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The scum AP making sure the public knows the GOP is not cutting enough. The media and ALL of TV are evil and they all support Hussein. This is as bad as the old USSR.
The 233-198 tally was a loss for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio,
I don't like it at all when the Republicans are the budget busters. I haven't heard of a single reason for this engine other than those who just want to get their hands in the defense money cookie jar.
Boner was beginning to look just like another pig at the trough on this one.
It's better to have multiple suppliers, multiple designs. Just sayin'.
Meet your new boss...same as the old boss.
They can lie, cheat, steal, but are better at political gamesmanship. GOP needs to fight fire with fire.
I’m unclear - is this engine already in existence or was this money to fund research?
If GE is going to provide jet engines to the Chinese, we need to be developing another source.
K.I.O....
The reasons for? Possibly the fighter jock(s) I have spoken to think the GE engines have better throttle response than the Pratts. If that is the only reason that is a pretty thin soup if you ask me.
But note, the "dual source" argument rings hollow. This is a seperate design and that means two sets of parts books and all the spare parts logistics. That is a big cost driver. Hopefully all the "externals" and mounting points are the same, if not in a war time event where and engine has to be changed ASAP, this would make it tougher if it isn't.
I know of 2 engines that various branches have had were manufacturer "X" had to share their drawings with manufacture "Y" for true dual source of one engine. The parties hate it, but it happened for:
1.) Pratt & Whitney manufactured the GE 404 for the F-18.
2.) Teledyne Continental got to manufacturer the William Intl F-107 Cruise Missile Engine.
yup...obama won...it wasn’t a victory for tea party candidates who bucked the CINO’s...lmao at the criminal liberal media...
I was thinking the same; this has been tossed about for a while now and any one with a pea brain knows the pentagon did not want to spend money on this and those C-17's the Air Force didn't want.
Isn’t this the one the military did not actually want in the first place?
Way to go AP... Spin one for ‘the gipper’
This is nothing new. In WWII B24s were produced by Consolidated, Douglas, Ford and Martin.
Its important for us to retain the skills needed to produce
these engines. That means keeping technologists working
in the field instead of leaving to take up designing eCommerce websites or stoopid iPhone applets. Thats what happened to many engineers in the nuclear power industry.
http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.html
Amendments and the votes on them (how individuals voted isn’t up yet).
We’re losing a lot of votes to cut.
Weiner’s ‘cops’ vote is especially galling.
Yes, you make a good point, once these folks get out of the discipline they can loose the skill set quickly. Problem is with Obozo we have no desire to rebuild the military to the point where their is more fighter designs of different sizes for which engineers can design or adapt engines of all sizes, this isn’t the 60’s thats for sure.
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