Thursday, June 25, 2009

F-22 War Planes Are Not Wanted By Military, Yet House Passes Defense Bill That Includes The F 22. Please sign yet another petition.

Dear Peggy,
Tell the Senate - If you don't stop the F-22, Obama will!

Email your Senators now and tell them to cut these wasteful warplanes so Obama doesn't have to!

The other night the House Rules Committee denied Barney Frank's amendment to strip out unnecessary F-22s from the Defense Authorization bill.1 We were really angry when we got the news, and we weren't the only ones: President Obama has announced that he might veto the entire authorization bill if the planes aren't taken out.2

But there's another chance for our leaders to do the right thing - the Senate is taking up their version of the bill right now, and if they leave the planes out, we can avoid an ugly confrontation.

Email your Senator right now and demand that they keep these wasteful warplanes out of the bill - so the President doesn't have to.

http://www.truemajority.org/nof22

Why the added F-22's were allowed to remain in the House version of the bill is a mystery. But the weapons-builders are a powerful lobby in DC, and sometimes have influence regular citizens don't know about. Fortunately, we've got some powerful allies in our corner too: including President Obama and his Secretary of Defense who called these planes 'a big problem' for the Pentagon.3

Now the fight moves to the Senate where we've got plans to work with the president's team and the Pentagon to make sure that the Senate version of the bill does not include these unneeded planes. You can help by sending an email your Senator right now and asking him or her to get on board.

-Matt
Matt Holland
Online Director
TrueMajority / USAction

6 comments:

Wait. What? said...

More money wasted on killing machines....

I will sign!

Kentucky Rain said...

This is another one of those "government wastes taxpayer money on redundant war machines" stories. I did, in fact, send a note to my representatives when I heard about this and did sign the petition. As you pointed out the president will put a stop to it if he must but let's hope our duly elected representatives will stop it first. I will NOT be holding my breath.

Utah Savage said...

Cat, thanks for signing.

MadMike. It always gives me a little thrill when you show up. You should do it more often, if only for the thrill it gives me.

Randal Graves said...

I want an F-22 so I can blow up my neighbor.

Utah Savage said...

I'm all for your personal right to an F 22 Randal. I just don't way to pay for your F 22. I think your neighbor needs to go, but, happily, that's your problem, not mine.

Unknown said...

Obviously the people of Lockheed are powerful when it comes to getting what they want. On the other hand, the F22 is built in Georgia and there are lots of jobs (people I know) associated with it here, close to home, for me. And Lockheed is also one our (Mathman H.S.) corporate partners in education - they have bought me and my students plenty of calculators over the last several years and helped our band go to the inauguration.

As always there multiples sides to every story.