F-35

@Duchess64
Yes you did, so sorry.

So called "fiscal conservatives" are freaking out about the COVID relief package (for valid reasons) but crickets on this. That should tell you that they are just playing politics and not really interested in prudent use of tax dollars. Note also that the "strong support in congress" has nothing to do with the potential defense capabilities of the F-35. It's a welfare jobs program.

In broader remarks emphasizing more modest, cost-effective goals for the military, Smith said Congress must “seriously scrub” the Pentagon’s big-ticket weapons programs. Though Smith holds a powerful job, the F-35 enjoys strong support in Congress, and the lawmaker lamented that the country seems to be locked into the program.

“We have wasted a spectacular amount of money on weapons systems that either haven’t worked at all or who have not lived up to their promise,” Smith said. “The failure we wind up tolerating is failure on a massive freaking scale. Think F-35.”

@wildgrass

Several good points, wildgrass. Personally, I think the US should shift to a much smaller military to save money.
Keep the expensive toys like the F-35 for now but as time goes on, start spending less - way less, on such items.
Maybe even purchase some of them from other countries.

@earl-of-trumps said
@wildgrass

Several good points, wildgrass. Personally, I think the US should shift to a much smaller military to save money.
Keep the expensive toys like the F-35 for now but as time goes on, start spending less - way less, on such items.
Maybe even purchase some of them from other countries.

As of December 31, 2020, the U.S. had appropriated approximately $143.27 billion for relief and construction in Afghanistan since 2002..... $2.4 billion was spent on buildings and vehicles that were unused or abandoned, were not used for their intended purposes or that had deteriorated or were destroyed. The agency was not able to report on the total amount spent as the construction or procurement of assets was not completed in some cases while maintenance costs were not highlighted in others. Nevertheless, the report noted that $1.2 billion worth of capital assets were being used as intended in Afghanistan while just over $580 million worth were in use but not as intended. Some $617 million worth of assets were unused or abandoned.

YouTube : F-35 Analysis

@wildgrass said
small government = small military.

Imagine the improvements in urban blight and our homeless and freakin' traffic if this kind of money was spent on US infrastructure projects?
[quote]As of December 31, 2020, the U.S. had appropriated approximately $143.27 billion for relief and construction in Afghanistan since 2002..... $2.4 billion was spent on buildings and vehicles ...[text shortened]... e-us-wasted-billions-of-dollars-on-buildings-and-vehicles-in-afghanistan-infographic
What the what?

The post that was quoted here has been removed

@earl-of-trumps said
So we spend $Trillions to blow it up and hundreds of $Billions rebuilding.

🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄

@wildgrass said
These are clearly the actions of an organization with way too much money to spend and they forgot what their mission statement was.

Where are conservatives? They're too busy trying to referee the culture war.

@earl-of-trumps said
lol, the Republicans (not sure about the true conservatives) are right in the middle of it with the rest.

Yes, the country is $28TRILLION in debts, and yet there is no problem for them to waste vast amounts of money like this.
"Who watches the watchers?"

Forgot their mission statement...?? do you think they even care or know what it is?

How many people in t ...[text shortened]... at America's mission statement was when the invasion of Afghanistan occurred??

Damm few, mon ami.