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Obama Renews Veto Threat Against Wasteful Defense Spending
Phoenix, AZ (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Monday renewed his threat to veto a 2010 defense budget that includes funding for new presidential helicopters and an alternate engine for the F-35. The House last month passed a budget providing money for defense programs Obama opposes.
Speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Obama decried funds allocated by lawmakers above the Pentagon’s budget request.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars for an alternate second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter — when one reliable engine will do just fine,” he said. “Nearly $2 billion to buy more F-22 fighter jets — when we can move ahead with a fleet of newer, more affordable aircraft. And billions of dollars for a new presidential helicopter… Among its other capabilities, it would let me cook a meal while under nuclear attack.”
“The special interests, contractors, and entrenched lobbyists, they’re invested in the status quo,” Obama added. “They’re putting up a fight. But make no mistake, so are we. If a project doesn’t support our troops, if it does not make America safer, we will not fund it… if Congress sends me a defense bill loaded with a bunch of pork, I will veto it.” The House passed a $636.3 billion budget on July 30 without money for 12 additional F-22s. Congressmen had wanted to purchase the new jets, worth $369 million more the administration’s request, but the Senate had made clear in an amendment from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that it supported the White House.
The Pentagon says it needs to cap the number of F-22s to the 187 it already has and use the savings to buy F-35s, which are newer model jets.
Congressmen from both sides of the aisle had wanted to continue with the F-22 program due to concerns about national security risks, and about losing jobs in states that have suppliers for Lockheed Martin, which makes the jets. They capitulated on the F-22s, but stayed firm on the presidential choppers.
The bill they passed includes $400 million above the the White House request to make five VH-71 helicopters operational. It also has $560 million not requested by the President to continue development and initial procurement of an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
“These helicopters currently have no mission equipment and would require in excess of $2 billion to complete and to operate as Presidential helicopters, yet would still not meet full operational requirements for that mission,” the White House has said of the VH-71. “DOD and the White House are conducting a requirements analysis, and the outcome of this effort should not be pre-empted.”
“Expenditures on an alternate engine for the JSF are unnecessary and divert resources from the overall JSF program,” it added. “The current engine is performing well, and the risks associated with a single engine provider are manageable.”
The defense budget still needs to be taken up by the Senate when it returns from a month-long recess in September.
Obama’s remarks marked the VFW’s 110th National Convention, and a critical time in the wars in Afghanistan, where the Pentagon launched its first major offensive last month, and Iraq, where American forces withdrew from cities and localities on June 30 as part of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) .
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