Stop the Protectionist Bitching
- In a stunning upset that could reshape the nation's aerospace industry, Northrop Grumman Corp. and European partner Airbus were tapped Friday for a $40-billion Pentagon contract to build 179 aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force.
If the
US cannot accept competition then is should not portray the request for bids as a "competition". Airbus offers the military a better deal, after Boeing screwed up the last deal with corrupt officials and a gouging price-tag. Boeing still
expected to get a pass on its inferior bid and got burned. It's not competition if the "home" team cannot lose. (this contract will create jobs in Alabama instead of Washington and Illinois) The USAF explained the choice in simple terms:
- "More passengers, more cargo, more fuel offload, more patients that we can carry, more availability, more flexibility and more dependability," Gen. Arthur Lichte, the commander of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, said of the Northrop Grumman-EADS KC-45A tanker.
If we are to consider the DOD budget as a jobs program for American manufacturers, then let's come out and say so. If not, then all opposition to this highly scrutinized competition should be muzzled. Don't forget about how Boeing got burned on the original bid. And yes, though I am fairly liberal, I do not like the anti-NAFTA rhetoric being employed to win Ohio right now. NAFTA did not kill manufacturing in the Midwest, but it is a convenient excuse. And McCain gets kudos for leading the charge against Boeing's bogus "bid" last time, where they were going to "lease" the planes to us and pocket $4 billion. Google the name
Drunyan with Boeing......
- "In 2004, the U.S. Congress killed a $23.5 billion Air Force plan to lease and then buy 100 modified Boeing 767 tankers amid a Pentagon procurement scandal brought to light chiefly by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the all-but certain Republican nominee for U.S. president"
I am not a likely McCain voter, but I like to give credit where it's due. I will be interested to see if he will stands with
Pelosi in the "inquiry" into this matter.
