E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSFrom NBC's Luke Russert
In a vote that split the parties, the House just adopted an amendment - sponsored by Reps. Tom Rooney of Florida and John Larson of Connecticut -- to eliminate funding for the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine (F-136).
The final vote was 233-198, with 110 Republicans and 123 Democrats voting to strike the funding.
The engine, which costs $450 million, won backing from 130 Republicans but was opposed by some high-profile Tea Party-backed freshmen, including Reps. Allen West of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota.
The only member of House GOP Leadership to vote for the amendment was GOP Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.
Due to an aggressive lobbying push from people on both sides of the Striker engine issue, the vote caused for some strange bedfellows. For example: Democrats Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida voted with Republicans Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and Eric Cantor of Virginia to keep the funding.
The Senate still has to pass the amendment when they deal with the Continuing Resolution to fund the government later this month.
Leave a Comment:
This is probably the first thing the new Congress has done that actually makes sense.
The Congress has not done anything yet, just the House, the corporate owned Senate will vote to keep the Striker engine alive, you can count on it, brown paper bags full of cash are in route to your nearest Senator as we speak.
Nah, the money won't be in paper bags. Our corporate masters stopped trying to hide their congressional payoffs years ago.
Finally maybe these guys are really going to work together. Too bad Boehner I guess that company in your district will not be getting those funds after all for the spare engine. Atlas, there is justice in this world.
Thanks for pointing that fact out Navy!
I wonder why Luke Russert neglected to mention it? His father sure the hell would've!
I'm just thrilled to see Rachel Maddow having an impact on legislation! She spent a lot of time discussing this the other day, including Boehner's reason for supporting an extra engine the military didn't want.
Sec Gates has screamed to the Mountain Tops that he doesn't need these Billions and they don't even use these aircrafts. Both parties have continually ignored him and continued to spend trillions for years for their own districts keeping Defense Contractors in business, getting kickbacks and providing Jobs for their own. Finally, this is worthy of Cutting Budget Material. Cut what's ridiculous and just plain "Fat" in the budget and stop going after the Working Americans to Fund Rich Folks and Congress.
w
A few years to late, but it was the right vote by the house, now lets hope the Senate will vote the same way. They are many other defense programs that need to be cut out of the budget.
The people need to see Congress cut some superfluous projects in defense spending. We don't need the same weapons we needed for the cold war. It's nice to see both parties agreeing on something.
This is a good thing. For years the Pentagon has been saying they don't want a second source for the engine, but Congress kept appropriating the money. Those who say the defense budget is too high are right, in my opinion. But it's not necessarily the evil Pentagon at fault, Congress has been complicit in the game for a long time.
All of you that support this decision to cut funding to the F136 engine obviously know absolutely NOTHING about competition and keeping costs down! This alternate engine approach has worked successfully in the past to keep engine costs down on other fighter projects and is the reason that it is the RIGHT approach for the JSF. I'm a Tea Partier also but I also know what's right and wrong to be cutting in the defence budget... a single source for aircraft engines is a verifiable NO-NO in the aerospace industry! The engine is one of, if not THE, most expensive component on any aircraft and the only thing that keeps the purchase price and aftermarket costs down is COMPETITION!! Stop being stupid congress and cut crap like the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the EPA!!
Well obviously the next step is to cut the JSF entirely. Navy doesn't want it, Marines don't want it, Air Force doesn't want it, only Congress wants it to keep jobs in their districts so they can keep getting re-elected. The F/A 18 Super Hornet is more than adequate to meet the defense needs of the next generation.
All the forces need something, especially as the F-15's and F-16's are nearing a fatigue point that prohibits further use. Boeing has introduced an upgraded F-15, and perhaps we need to look hard at that. I know the Navy and Marines love the latest F/A-18 fighters, and will be fine with those for some time. The cuts should not end with new fighters. I am not sure how many new submarines we need, and above all we need to look into closing most of our foriegn bases.
SupportCompetition -- with all due respect, the Pentagon disagrees with you. It's true that as a general proposition, competition is favorable. But there are also costs associated with maintainig a second manufacturer. The folks in the Pentagon who analyze these things aren't dummies, and they concluded years ago that it would be in the best interests of the government not to have a second source for this engine.
I don't think the Marine Corps needs a special VSTOL version of the Joint Strike Fighter. They say they need it to replace the Harrier "jump jets," but we don't need a Harrier replacement. The Brits got rid of the Harrier, and it was their brain child. We need an Airforce JSF and a Navy version for carrier landings and that is it. Let the Marines use the Navy version. We need to find more cuts withing the military if we need to beat up on the poor and middle class. The wealthy started this mess. Let them pay for it!
Is this the Eric Cantor, who screams about waste and cutting back on run away spending and tauting fiscal responsibility? The same guy is pushing for pork in his district? Well, Erick the Reformer has turned out to be just another hypocrite.