The military, spending on the military in particular, is one of those things in Washington, one of those blessed things in Washington that functions essentially as a bullpuckey detector. It‘s one of those things that tells you whether or not people really mean what they say.
This, for example, is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It is a very, very fancy fighter jet. It is also the subject of a whole lot of advertising in Washington, D.C.-based publications.
Why does it star in so many Beltway advertisements? Why does it get so much attention? Because Congress has decided in its infinite wisdom that it wants to fund part of this plane that the Pentagon doesn‘t want. This very fancy jet comes with a spare engine. Full disclosure: one of our parent companies, G.E., helps make this spare engine.
The way Congress has designed this right now, for every Joint Strike Fighter jet that‘s built, there is a backup engine built for it, too.
Why do you need a backup engine built for this jet? Good question.
The Pentagon doesn‘t know either. They do not want it.
But despite the fact that the military keeps saying they don‘t want it, Congress keeps funding it. Today, that spare engine offered us yet another bullpuckey detection moment. President Obama‘s spending plan that was put out today follows the military‘s advice. It eliminates funding for this spare engine that the military does not want.
House Republicans, on the other hand, they want to keep it. Their spending plan for the rest of the fiscal year includes $450 million for this random backup engine that the military doesn‘t want and would prefer to kill.
The military brass gave a press conference. This is amazing. The military brass gave a press conference today detailing the list of things that they really don‘t want that Congress keeps making them take anyway—only in America. The spare engine got star billing.
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