Twitterview On the F-22 with @SenJohnMcCain: “It’s what Eisenhower Warned Us About”
EmailTAPPER: so @senjohnmccan whats going to happen with the F-22 Senate vote today? do u have the votes?
MCCAIN: @jaketapper I never count votes Jake, but it appears to be close.
TAPPER: @SenJohnMcCain is "jobs" the most compelling issue for your opponents?
MCCAIN: @jaketapper Yes, but also argue capability – despite the fact it's never been used in Iraq or Afghanistan
MCCAIN: @jaketapper Jake, look at the where the "jobs" are and who is voting for the F-22…
TAPPER: @SenJohnMcCain Chambliss seems to rely on Air Force officials a great deal for his arguments – does USAF disagree w/Gates + Mullen?
MCCAIN: @jaketapper CoS & Secretary of the AF agree with Secretary Gates
TAPPER: @senjohnmccain Chambliss has certainly suggested that AF officials — esp CoS Gen Schwartz — privately say they want to save F-22…
TAPPER: @senjohnmccain i hear you,re: jobs, but isnt that the defense contractor way, spreading jobs out throughout the US to maximize cong support?
MCCAIN: @jaketapper of course, but it doesn't mean we need the plane.
TAPPER: @senjohnmccain on its face seems odd that such a struggle to kill a plane opposed by Mullen, Gates, AF, POTUS, Levin + you
MCCAIN: @jaketapper It’s what Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address to the nation
TAPPER: @SenJohnMcCain the rise oif the military-industrial complex? what do u recommend to fix it?
MCCAIN: @jaketapper the F-22 amendment is a crucial vote on whether we can prevail over the Military Industrial Congressional Complex or not.
-jpt
*This post has been updated with McCain's answer to the final question.
Obama: 'Now Is the Time For Common Sense Action' 
Romney Takes Aim at Conservatives
McCain “I never count votes.” Translation, we lose…TG
“It’s never been used in Iraq or Afghanistan.” But has been placed on stand by in East Asia.
Kerry..Kennedy..Martha WANT the F-22 to remain.
GENERAL EISENHOWER ALWAYS SAID AFTER D-DAY, “IF I DIDN’T HAVE AIR SUPREMACY, I WOULDN’T BE HERE.”
Posted by: Parallex View | July 21, 2009, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
Kudos for an effective use of technology to get a snippet of news out. I would be interested to read McCain’s response to the last question if you can get one.
Posted by: The Grand Panjandrum | July 21, 2009, 12:14 pm 12:14 pm
“Kerry..Kennedy..Murtha WANT the F-22 to remain.”
That’s enough for me to think there is something very wrong with keeping it.
Put the money towards VA benefits and protecting our troops better.
Posted by: Hmmm... | July 21, 2009, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
“MCCAIN: @jaketapper the F-22 amendment is a crucial vote on whether we can prevail over the Military Industrial Congressional Complex or not.”
Wow. I’m almost speechless.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 12:28 pm 12:28 pm
How long can this thing linger over the battlefield? That’s what is needed. Something that can carry loads of stuff, is armored and can linger for air support. We need a Skyraider.
Posted by: MPH | July 21, 2009, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm
Amazing how Mccain speaks about prevailing over the Military Industrial Complex, ie. commercializing war by making it profitable.
Posted by: edditnyc | July 21, 2009, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
“Amazing how Mccain speaks about prevailing over the Military Industrial Complex, ie. commercializing war by making it profitable.”
Thankfully, it is empty talk. As we all know, when Obama became President, he ended US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Peace Now | July 21, 2009, 12:54 pm 12:54 pm
Posted by: edditnyc | Jul 21, 2009 12:49:05 PM
McCain’s got nothing on Hillary “Merchant of Death” Clinton:
“NEW DELHI, July 20, 2009 (Reuters) — The United States and India said Monday they had agreed on a defense pact that takes a major step toward allowing the sale of sophisticated U.S. arms to the South Asian nation as it modernizes its military.”
Does Obama know?
Posted by: Sold | July 21, 2009, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
AP “The Senate has sided with the Obama administration in agreeing to cut off new spending for the F-22 jet fighter program.
The 58-40 vote removes $1.75 billion set aside in a defense policy bill to build seven more F-22 Raptors, adding to the 187 stealth technology fighters already in the pipeline.”
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
Obama is anti-military for wanting to cut F-22 but McCain isn’t? Doesn’t add up.
Posted by: Matt | July 21, 2009, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
Cut the fat–if we’re not using it/then lose it. the economy is more important,citizans losing their homes,business’s going bankrupt. Human rights and equality half a world away is back burner stuff–bring our troups home. The death of almost 5000 americans is a high price to pay. F-22? no we don’t need to continue BUSH’s WAR.
Posted by: Kim E Peckham | July 21, 2009, 1:22 pm 1:22 pm
Conservatives are not always in favor of military spending without reservation. We would rather see the Army and Marines get all the personal weapons and protective systems they need and to see the equipment that has been damaged in Iraq and Afghanistan repaired so our troops are not riding in around in unsafe vehicles. What is disturbing about Obama is that he is throwing huge amounts of money at most government agencies, but asking the military to cut costs. I hope McCain, Gates, and others are challenging him on this issue. We need to use competitive bidding on contracts whenever possible and we need to structure incentives for the contractors to complete work ahead of time and under budget instead of just paying no matter what. We need to increase the size of the military and instead of focusing on new weapons systems, we need to put money into maintaining and repairing our ships, tanks, and aircraft.
Posted by: Jason | July 21, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
“What is disturbing about Obama is that he is throwing huge amounts of money at most government agencies, but asking the military to cut costs.”
The defense budget is up 4%.
What is being cut are the F-22, the airborne laser etc.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 1:36 pm 1:36 pm
–The defense budget is up 4%.–
And that’s bad, right?
Posted by: Unsure | July 21, 2009, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
ryan says: “The defense budget is up 4%.”
Ok, my bad, the 2010 budget is up 4% from 2009, but the 2009 budget was down 4% from 2008. So basically it was flat, and when we are fighting a war and our military has been stretched thin, they need extra money to repair and refit.
Posted by: Jason | July 21, 2009, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
“Ok, my bad, the 2010 budget is up 4% from 2009, but the 2009 budget was down 4% from 2008. So basically it was flat, and when we are fighting a war and our military has been stretched thin, they need extra money to repair and refit.”
And who signed the 2009 budget?
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 1:51 pm 1:51 pm
ryan asks: “And who signed the 2009 budget?”
Bush asked for a 7.5% increase in the budget, but was returned one with a 4% decrease by Congress.
Posted by: Jason | July 21, 2009, 1:57 pm 1:57 pm
“Bush asked for a 7.5% increase in the budget, but was returned one with a 4% decrease by Congress.”
“The administration’s topline request of $515.4 billion, plus a $70 billion placeholder for an emergency supplemental to continue funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, had been expected. It was the 11th straight year the U.S. defense budget request has increased, according to budget analyst Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.”
“President Bush signed the fiscal 2009 defense budget into law today, authorizing a $512 billion base to support military readiness, as well as $66 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm
Cut the fat–if we’re not using it/then lose it. the economy is more important,citizans losing their homes,business’s going bankrupt.
————————————–
Kim,
What do you think is going to happen to those people who get laid-off as a result of this?
1.75 Billion to keep 22,000 Americans WORKING! This time around I respectfully disagree with Sen McCain. Given the astronomical spending numbers we have tossed about, 1.75 billion is 0.11% of the monies we have commited to spend in just TARP & the Great “Stimulator”.
So hey, we can accept a few more military planes and KEEP 22,000 people working, or stand up and thump our chests as not being “wasteful” while telling those 22,000 people it was an acceptable trade-off!
Posted by: Mike_C | July 21, 2009, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
Posted by: Ryan C | Jul 21, 2009 2:26:52 PM
Imagine the money that could be saved if Obama ended the war. Not possible I guess.
Posted by: Peace Now | July 21, 2009, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
“Imagine the money that could be saved if Obama ended the war. Not possible I guess.”
Unfortunately it is not possible.
The organization that has attacked us and continues to plan to attack us if still around.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 2:42 pm 2:42 pm
“Unfortunately it is not possible.”
Yeah, it isn’t possible to stop bombing weddings with drones or interning people at Bagram. Sounds like something Bush/Cheney would say.
Posted by: Peace Now | July 21, 2009, 2:53 pm 2:53 pm
“Sounds like something Bush/Cheney would say.
Actually its something most people would say.
Knowing that Iraq is the wrong battlefield does not mean I think there is no war.
Posted by: Ryan C | July 21, 2009, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
yes,he who has no regard for life should not handle the ultimate weapons of death,America has regard for life they should go ahead cos no body knows when there will be war.War is never planned but it happens.America should be carefull in th decision they take or else they will lose the wolrd power one day
Posted by: baba | July 21, 2009, 3:41 pm 3:41 pm
if there happens to be a war in America citizens will still lose there homes,economy will still get worse,these are not reasons for not getting what is needed
Posted by: baba | July 21, 2009, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm
I think we should ceep it,the f-22 is a vary good jet, and i think we need to upgrade from the anteek f-15. we cant give our military old equipment then ask them to win a modern war. it just dose not work that way. and you want to talk about excessive spending? ok well lets talk about this stimulus package. over $900,000,000,00 spent and what have we seen from it? NOTHING!!!! more jobs lost. I dont think oboma knows what the hell he is doing to this country
Posted by: Robert | July 21, 2009, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm
It kills me to think they’re quibbling over less than 2 billion dollars on national defense, when they have no problem giving in excess of 50 billion to the auto industry that we’ll never see again. I guess if these planes were built by GM or Chrysler’s wasteful unions, Obama would have no problem supporting them and would probably order another 200…..
Posted by: Michael Hamrick | July 21, 2009, 3:54 pm 3:54 pm
Posted by: Robert | Jul 21, 2009 3:46:10 PM
Still need a Skyraider.
Posted by: MPH | July 21, 2009, 3:55 pm 3:55 pm
Posted by: Michael Hamrick | Jul 21, 2009 3:54:22 PM
GM is nothing. Goldman Sachs is where it is AT.
Posted by: $ Bags | July 21, 2009, 3:57 pm 3:57 pm
Bush’s war??? If I recall correctly the Congress approved military action towards Iraq. This is American’s war, a war that we won and freed 26 million people.
As for the F-22, does it work? Many military systems started as unworkable but ended up as great successes; the M-16 rifle, the M-1 mbt, the Sidewinder, the AIM missile, etc. Will it become a success or is it doomed to failure. If it is a failure then scrap it. The argument advanced by Barry is that the Soviet Union no longer exists so we don’t need weapons to fight the USSR. He doesn’t understand that the Russians are using the same weapons that the Soviet Union used. Weapons oppose weapons, not political entities.
Posted by: Calvin | July 22, 2009, 2:37 am 2:37 am
Gee, how many jobs did THIS decision just eliminate, not to mention the dent in future capability to WIN a war?
I guess Obama figured he can create 5 burger-flipper jobs for every aeronautical engineer job he cuts, and at an engineer’s salary, the engineer was most likely a Republican anyway, so the loss of THAT job doesn’t really even count!
Posted by: Fed_Up_With_BOTH_Parties | July 22, 2009, 2:49 am 2:49 am
Suddenly there are so many idiots voicing their views on what our current government should or should not do. Where were these people when GWB and his buddies basically set this country on the road to failure? Not one peep out of them. They are suddenly now experts on every issue. I wish that they would just shut the hell up and let our elected officials do the job they were elected to do…
Posted by: johnnylee | July 22, 2009, 3:36 am 3:36 am
johnnylee – Your memory isn’t so good… these boards were SCREAMING obscenities at the previous Administration, for YEARS! My neighbor even sported so many Anti-Bush bumper stickers, I think they were holding the piece of garbage he drove together.
Maybe you were one of those screaming, and so you didn’t hear anyone around you… I can’t tell the difference between the two Administrations – BOTH were ignoramuses!!
Posted by: Fed_Up_With_BOTH_Parties | July 22, 2009, 7:00 am 7:00 am