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The House Armed Services Committee (HASC), for the second consecutive year, is proposing blocking the retirement of A-10 attack planes.
[...]The long-expected move was revealed Monday afternoon with the release of Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry's version of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the full panel will mark up on [April 29].
The Air Force argues the decades-old A-10s are too expensive to keep flying. Lawmakers reject those arguments, saying the A-10s--which bring jobs to their states and districts--save US lives on the battlefield and must be kept operational.
"Rigorous oversight, endorsements from soldiers and Marines about the protection only the A-10 can provide, and repeated deployments in support of [Operation Inherent Resolve] have persuaded Chairman Thornberry and many members from both parties that the budget-driven decision to retire the A-10 is misguided," according to a HASC fact sheet accompanying the legislation.
On the downside IMO:
Responding to the Navy's and Marine Corps' shared list of "unfunded priorities" submitted this year to lawmakers, the House committee is proposing language that would clear the services to purchase more fighter aircraft than requested.
The Arizona Daily Star notes
Arizona [Congresswoman] Martha McSally [a former A-10 pilot and squadron commander] said she plans to offer amendments prohibiting both the A-10's retirement and the EC-130H [the Compass Call electronic jamming and surveillance plane] cuts.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday April 29 2015, @11:57AM
He seems to now be learning what Smedley Butler and Dwight Eisenhower both knew decades ago: The point of the US war machine is not to win wars and definitely not to protect the citizens of the US from foreign attack, but to ensure that a few politically connected corporations and their owners make an ungodly amount of money while leaving the population desperate enough so that working 20 unpredictably scheduled hours a week at $8 an hour looks like a good deal.
Remember, $750 billion for a plane that doesn't fly (the F-35) gets a lot more support from US politicians than $75 billion to feed hungry people. That tells you a lot about their priorities.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tathra on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:01PM
it tells you everything about the priorities of the people who keep re-electing them too. funny how self-proclaimed "christians" ("The US is a Christian nation!" lol) are so intent on fucking the poor and murdering brown people, you know, the exact opposite of Christ's teachings.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tathra on Wednesday April 29 2015, @03:21PM
and before anybody says anything, while the US may not be a Christian nation, it is a nation of self-proclaimed christians, [pewforum.org] with 78% of the country self-identifying as christian (here's the census data [census.gov]). a supermajority of US citizens claim to follow Christ's teachings while doing the exact opposite, ensuring their country dedicates itself to fucking the poor, and murdering and profiteering.