Robert Burton writes in the Myrtle Beach Sun News" At a time when our country is facing daunting challenges to reform health care, grow jobs in a recovering economy, and recapitalize an exhausted military, we must work now more than ever to ensure our government isn't wasting a single tax dollar.A case in point is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the military's next-generation fighter jet that one day will be deployed in South Carolina at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter.
The Department of Defense authorized Pratt and Whitney to develop and field the new engine for the fighter. Congress jumped in and meddled in the matter, earmarking millions for a second engine that the Department of Defense doesn't want and didn't ask for. Yes, that's right, Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has been spending $500 million a year for the past four years on a jet engine that is far behind the other engine in development and likely won't ever be used in the Joint Strike Fighter. If the funding continues in the next few years, another $5.2 billion will be wasted."
The full column is here...
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