David Obey: “we are told this amendment to cut $1 billion is going to cost money. The fact is the amendment saves $1 billion. The…”

“we are told this amendment to cut $1 billion is going to cost money. The fact is the amendment saves $1 billion. The fact is that the GAO, the General Accounting Office, says we ought to delay the purchase of these planes for 7 years. All this amendment does is delay it for 5. We have heard a couple of speakers from Georgia, where this baby is going to be built, tell us that our friends abroad, our foreign friends, need the F-22. I find that argument ironic, because one of the arguments being used by the supporters of the F-22 is that they are saying ``Well, we have to build the F-22 because we have sold so many F-16's to our allies around the world that we now have to buy the F-22 to stay ahead of the threat from our own allies, because we sold too many planes abroad.'' I find that argument coming back and meeting itself. I also find it interesting that the president of Lockheed, the company who is going to build this, has already been saying that he is going to be selling this baby at the Paris Air Show next year. That tells me this is in the budget for purposes of promoting military sales, to increase the profitability of military contractors, and they have been careful to subcontract this baby over 48 States in the Union. That does not tell me much at all about the need for this in order to maintain U.S. air superiority.”