The $1.45 Trillion Fighter Jet—and the Florida Deficit Hawks Who Love It

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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/rick-scott-pentagon-money-f35



Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll gets ready to take out Osama bin Laden.


The F-35 fighter jet's first missile floated wide. The second found its target, and an explosion brought the bogey down. "Yes! Got him! Woo!" exclaimed the pilot, Jennifer Carroll, a 52-year-old former Navy officer and airplane mechanic. But it's Carroll's current job—lieutenant governor of Florida—that explains why her simulator flight was being closely watched by about two dozen members of the Florida League of Defense Contractors at an industry gathering in Tallahassee on a drizzly morning in mid-February. Next, with a technician from Lockheed Martin furiously pointing at indicators and whispering commands over her shoulder, Carroll nosed the simulator down to take on a ground target. "Three, two, one…blam!" she exclaimed, to laughter. "Osama, you're gone!" Virtual mission accomplished.

Carroll's real aim at the gathering was to affirm that she and her boss, Gov. Rick Scott, stood ready to wage battle alongside the assembled business owners, lobbyists, and retired military types to guarantee that Florida's economy will continue to benefit from a steady infusion of defense dollars; one study from 2010 pegged military spending in Florida at $30 billion.

Of course, almost all of that money ultimately comes from the federal government—the same federal government that tea partiers blast for unbridled spending and busted budgets. And while many in Washington agree with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that cutting "defense has to play a role in dealing with the national deficit," it seems that Carroll and Scott, the Florida standard-bearers of the tea party's debt-focused rage, are none too eager to see those cuts on their home front. Last year Scott, along with the leaders of the predominately Republican Legislature, created the Florida Defense Support Task Force to make the state even sunnier to defense contractors—and to keep those federal bucks flowing. Ensuring the continuation of the F-35 fighter project is one way to do that.

[leveymg]

1. The plane, its development program, and cost overruns are a disaster.

It was a badly flawed, compromised design to begin with, that is now obsolete, and an inferior performer. It's just a stim program for defense contractors, at this point.

Kill it, and start over.

[liberal N proud]

2. Those who scream about the deficit are only screaming about social programs

The war machine must march on in their views and all else can be sacrificed.