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(snip) Mr. Obama drew some of his most enthusiastic applause when he hammered away at wasteful military spending, declaring, “It’s simple enough. Cut the waste. Save taxpayer dollars. Support the troops.” And he also took pains to praise a hometown politician and former rival — Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who was traveling overseas and did not attend the event on Monday. Mr. Obama called him “a great veteran, a great Arizonan and a great American who has shown the courage to stand and fight this waste.” (snip)

In the aftermath of the November election, President Obama and Republican foe John McCain pledged to work together for the good of the country. At the moment, the issue that is bringing them together is the F-22 fighter -- more specifically, how to cut the program. As the Globe reported on Sunday, Democrats, including some from New England, are fighting the president, trying to preserve the F-22 program to save local jobs. Today, McCain sought to eliminate $1.75 billion in the proposed 2010 defense budget for more of the fighter jets, the Associated Press reports.

WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain wants to remove the $1.75 billion recently inserted into the proposed 2010 defense budget for more fighter jets from Lockheed Martin. The Arizona Republican's spokeswoman says he plans to file an amendment to cut the extra money for seven more F-22's. The Senate Armed Services Committee last month narrowly approved the additional funding requested by Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss.

When the Obama administration outlined its plans to cut big weapons programs, some of the military industry’s allies in Congress assumed, as they have in the past, that they would have the final say. But over the last week, the White House has prodded Congressional leaders to strip several billion dollars’ worth of extra equipment out of a wartime spending bill. Experts say that effort suggests Mr. Obama should be able to reshape the Pentagon’s spending practices. The developments have shaken up the industry. In the past, military contractors have routinely beaten back attempts to cancel weapons programs by lobbying...

President Obama, joined by Senator John McCain and Senator Carl Levin, discussed a review of how contracts are awarded. the new york times

A bill to end cost overruns in major weapons systems would create a powerful new Pentagon position -- director of independent cost assessments -- to review cost analyses and estimates, separately from the military branch requesting the program. Those reviews, unlike in the current process, would take place at key points in the acquisition process before a weapons program can proceed, according to legislation sponsored by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Last year, the Government Accountability Office reported that cost overruns on the Pentagon's 95 largest weapons acquisitions system totaled about $300 billion, even though...

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...

WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department would be forced to change its acquisition process under legislation introduced on Tuesday by top senators determined to crack down on the runaway costs and costly schedule delays dogging many Pentagon weapons programs. Senators Carl Levin, the Democrat who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, and John McCain, a former presidential candidate and the top Republican on the committee, said the bill aimed to achieve more reasonable cost and schedule estimates before programs started. It also would ensure technologies were more developed before production began and would crack down on the...