via SaintPetersbergBlog
“First came defense cuts of $487 billion over ten years,” he said. “Then, adding insult to injury, the savings found in the defense budget were redirected to already-bloated domestic programs.”Read the entire thing.
To Rubio, the county’s security is not a temporary fix; a secure nation is something requiring constant vigilance.
“National defense is not an area where we can flip a switch when a need suddenly arises,” he said. “It takes forethought to design and many years to build the capabilities we may need at a moment’s notice.”
Modernization, innovation, and training need to be sustained priorities, even during periods of relative peace.
“For this to happen now, is terrible timing,” Rubio added. “Since a reluctance to utilize ground forces means our reliance on air power is increasing. As it is our only fifth-generation fighter in production, (the F-35) program is too important to abandon.”
With congressional support, Rubio believes the F-35 is poised to become the keystone in a family of fighters, ready to provide air support to troops stationed overseas, or to confront distant targets.
While the program has been gaining momentum in the past year after a number of technical and budgetary setbacks, Rubio said more needs to be done to meet global demand.
Both Russia and China are working on similar fighters, also with plans to export them to other countries.
This will end up as a fight between two Senators that happen to be eyeing making a run for President of the United States. Additionally they're looking to become part of the new breed of Republicans. For Rubio, he wants to be the new defense hawk, taking the place of Graham in that role. For Paul it looks like he plans to lead a wing of the party that is tired of run away spending, foreign entanglements and "USA world police" bullshit that is costing us precious money---and lives.
I'm betting on Ron Paul winning.
As much as Rubio might actually believe what he's saying, the public mood just isn't with him. Others nations need to step up to defend themselves. We can't continue to spend like the paper never runs out without seriously damaging our economy (and the world's).
The lame duck session will be the time when we see additional funding for the F-35. Thats the time to keep an eye on Congress AND Lockheed.
