Wants The Senate To Cut $1.75 Billion From The Bill

President Obama is insistent that he will veto the Defense Department Authorization Bill unless Senators remove nearly $2 billion earmarked for the purchase of 7 additional F-22 Raptors. The Lockheed Martin-built plane is the most expensive jet fighter ever built, and represents 25,000 jobs in 44 states.

Democratic Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have both expressed their support for the plane, saying that continuing the program would mean saving thousands of high-paying jobs. President Obama knows that losing this fight with a Democratically controlled congress would be an embarrassment to him, and has drawn a line in the sand on the Raptor.

The New York Times reports that congress has agreed with the President in cutting programs like missile defense, but that support for the F-22 has increased on the Hill in recent weeks. While the Pentagon says it would prefer to buy UAV's for reconnaissance and pick up the pace on the F-35 JSF, many Republicans in congress say the additional F-22's are needed for more traditional enemies like China. And, the Times reports, more Democrats are questioning why the administration would cut so many jobs in the F-22 program when it is spend trillions in stimulus money to create jobs elsewhere.

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 13-11 last month to restore funding for the additional aircraft, but Committee leaders Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) have filed an amendment to strike the funding for the additional F-22's. In a letter to Mr. McCain on Monday, Mr. Obama wrote that Pentagon leaders “do not need these planes.”

FMI www.senate.gov