GE and Rolls Royce are betting that their lobbyists will get us to continue to pay for their F-35 jet engine in FY2012. We stopped paying for it last month (FY2011), but the companies are willing to continue funding it, at least for the few months remaining in this fiscal year.
The Pentagon has been trying for five years to stop paying GE hundreds of millions of dollars a year for an engine the Pentagon does not want or need. Yet, our Congressional leaders vote for the program every year because they fear the loss of jobs in their district; nationwide there are 1,500 GE employees working on the program. If our leaders don't have the courage to eliminate what is essentially a boondoggle, how likely is it that they will do anything serious with regard to any spending which affects jobs?
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