Boondoggle and priority spending test for elected “Tea Party” congress

Recently I got a call from the Former Deputy Secretary of the Army describing the recent push to spend up to $2.9 billion on a new and different second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Originally, going back to 2006 the Pentagon was wanting to explore the use of a second engine in case the Pratt & Whitney one they currently use wasn’t working right. This never occurred, the current engine works great and with budget pull backs everywhere, the Pentagon decided not to go with a second engine when they didn’t need it. Kinda sounds sane, like the Pentagon looked at their needs in time of war and made the right choice.

---

How come then, according to a January 7th, Wall Street Journal article that Congress is attempting to assign at least $450,000 million to develop this second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter? Why would this extreme spending waste even be brought up and pushed in Congress when Defense Secretary Robert Gates says our military doesn’t want or need it? It is most interesting that even with the top Pentagon officials being against this that some in Congress are pushing for GE to make this second engine. Apparently, they want a redundant engine, spending upwards of $2.9 Billion on it, when our nation is trying to recover from a Recession. They couldn’t possibly see that it makes more sense to buy more of the outstanding and great running F-22s we already have. I have to be missing something here. After all the waste with the Progressive left Congress and Obama, surely we wouldn’t be even tempted to consider taking more tax payer money and spending it on a redundant engine that the Pentagon doesn’t’ want or need. Maybe the engine they use now has a safety record issue. No, I checked. The single engine provider that supplies for the F-22A and the F-18, has wonderful safety records. The DoD has managed risks and effectiveness issues for years with this engine. Maybe it’s become a monopoly and there is no competition allowed. Wrong again. In 1996 competitive contracts were given to Lockheed Martin and Boeing for Concept Development and the JSF program. The bottom line after reviewing all kinds of facts vs. myths about this push and talking with Van Hipp, the Former Deputy Secretary of the Army on this, it is a complete waste of money and not serving our military. In my view, it is rather lining someone’s pocket on the production side and stealing, yet again from the tax base of the American people!

Let’s assign some money for real priorities

Last week on my show, I interviewed Steve Eichler, a legal analyst I talk to every week on Tea Party and national issues. He had exposed how Sgt. James B. Hurley had been away serving his country in Iraq and had his home foreclosed on him, with his wife and two small children thrown out. Steve wrote and exposed how the Deutsche Bank Trust Company had foreclosed on Hurley in an article posted at Teapartyvets.org. Deutsche Bank Trust Company, associated with Morgan Stanley are still in court fighting it out. Stanley, allegedly revised their policy to make sure this didn’t happen again. Sadly, less than two months before he returned from Iraq, his property was sold in the Chicago area for $76,000. I could hardly do my show that day I was so angry and stunned. Not only had Sgt. Hurley and his family been royalty assaulted by this illegal foreclosure but it seems many more Vets have also been foreclosed on when they have been at war. If you are not screaming yet, you are probably dead. Here is where Congress needs to spend some money that would actually mean something and help, not create redundancy. How about setting up a $10 million account where soldiers deployed for active duty could receive a grant of up to $50,000 each, supplying $1500 a month mortgage payment help during a 2-4 year active duty status and 1 year afterward. IT IS AN EVIL, CRIME THAT ANYONE SERVING IN ACTIVE DUTY, RISKING THEIR LIVES FOR OUR COUNTRY WOULD RETURN TO HAVE LOST THEIR HOME IN FORECLOSURE. There, new Congress and Pentagon. Go spend some money that will actually help.