"New bomber could bring a jobs payload" headlined the front page of the Los Angeles Times (5/22/11)* as the great news spread rapidly across Southern California. But the U.S. is broke, laying off teachers, police and firefighters and may slash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, yet it has tons of money to invest in the Pentagon's proposed fleet of 80 to 100 next generation nuclear-capable jets.
The projected costs are $55 billion before even knowing the number of jets to be built. The costs will skyrocket as the aircraft is further designed and numerous features are added. Inflation will drive the costs still higher. The real costs including R&D will likely be hundreds of billions of dollars, as this jet is to be manufactured into the 2020's. No surprise, Republican "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and whose District includes part of where this jet would be built, strongly supports it.
In reply, I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles, like the rest of America, is desperate for high paying jobs, but not these. Their purpose is the delivery of weapons of mass destruction, assuming these planes are ever used at all. It may be like the F-22’s, they will simply be built and parked to provide jobs and all at taxpayer expense from a country rapidly going broke.
"The article never addressed where the money for these fighter jets would come from. Who pays for it if not the taxpayer? How? When? Will we establish a special tax on ourselves to pay for it? Or will we do what is done now with America’s weapons and wars, put it on an overwhelmed credit card?
"If this is what it appears, yet another military welfare jobs program, why don’t we save the taxpayers money and just give the money to the workers with the stipulation they do not build weapons of mass destruction with it. This way the world is safer and the U.S. taxpayer doesn’t have to pay for the additional cost of materials and facilities and other overhead."
This is a key reason why the U.S. Economy is not recovering. The military industrial complex is now one of America's biggest employers providing high paid jobs in nearly every Congressional District, and all at taxpayer's expense. The taxpayers can't afford it and the government, which raises 59 cents for every dollar it spends must borrow or print the money. This is leading to financial disaster and you and I must raise our voices for fiscal and moral sanity to rescue our nation.
Dick
*In the online addition, the Los Angeles Times changed the story title. Here is the story: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/22/business/la-fi-new-bomber-20110522
The projected costs are $55 billion before even knowing the number of jets to be built. The costs will skyrocket as the aircraft is further designed and numerous features are added. Inflation will drive the costs still higher. The real costs including R&D will likely be hundreds of billions of dollars, as this jet is to be manufactured into the 2020's. No surprise, Republican "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and whose District includes part of where this jet would be built, strongly supports it.
In reply, I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles, like the rest of America, is desperate for high paying jobs, but not these. Their purpose is the delivery of weapons of mass destruction, assuming these planes are ever used at all. It may be like the F-22’s, they will simply be built and parked to provide jobs and all at taxpayer expense from a country rapidly going broke.
"The article never addressed where the money for these fighter jets would come from. Who pays for it if not the taxpayer? How? When? Will we establish a special tax on ourselves to pay for it? Or will we do what is done now with America’s weapons and wars, put it on an overwhelmed credit card?
"If this is what it appears, yet another military welfare jobs program, why don’t we save the taxpayers money and just give the money to the workers with the stipulation they do not build weapons of mass destruction with it. This way the world is safer and the U.S. taxpayer doesn’t have to pay for the additional cost of materials and facilities and other overhead."
This is a key reason why the U.S. Economy is not recovering. The military industrial complex is now one of America's biggest employers providing high paid jobs in nearly every Congressional District, and all at taxpayer's expense. The taxpayers can't afford it and the government, which raises 59 cents for every dollar it spends must borrow or print the money. This is leading to financial disaster and you and I must raise our voices for fiscal and moral sanity to rescue our nation.
Dick
*In the online addition, the Los Angeles Times changed the story title. Here is the story: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/22/business/la-fi-new-bomber-20110522
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