The “ultimate fighter,” the F-35, was designed with the ability to adapt to all military branches. It has been a complete failure, as its costs have risen into the billions of taxpayer dollars. It has failed every test, and few ‘experts’ have expectations that it will every fly. There have been calls for scrapping the entire plan, and end the spending on a failed project.
I agree, but I also insist that the annual budget for the Pentagon be reduced. The United States spends more money on defense than the five nations combined who are considered powerful wartime adversaries. Fifty percent of the defense budget each year is wasted on failed ‘projects.’
In Herlong, California, just an hour north of Reno, Nevada, there are more than 2,000 M-1 Abrams tanks sitting in the desert sun, with no plans for future use; and the army continues to order the manufacture of additional tanks. In several storage locations across the nation, including Herlong, there are millions of tons of ammunition which will never be used in combat. These are just two examples of waste. The tens of millions of dollars thrown away by the pentagon could be used to fund social programs for the American people.
The average cost of each F-35 is a whopping $178 million. The estimate was originally $400 billion for 2,457 aircraft, but cost overruns are likely to double that amount.
Your president-elect, Donald, “spend like a sailor on leave,” Trump, wants an increase in the Pentagon’s budget. There can only be a single reason; he and his circle of sinners are heavily invested in the military industrial complex. Trump’s ‘handler’ in the United States is billionaire Robert Mercer; what are his major investments?
Our government has lost its collective mind. They will spend three-quarters of a billion dollars on wasted defense spending, but nothing for the nation’s people. They protect special interests and allow the richest of our nation to pay little in taxes while enjoying lives of privilege. America never will be a great nation, until our people are once again the priority of our government. Even if Trump had lost the election, it would still have been time for drastic change. Only democratic socialism can repair the damage to our nation professional politicians have caused for the last two decades by allowing capitalists unrestricted monetary rape of the American people.
Republicans cannot be trusted; they survive by lying and misleading the American people. The truth is that if the popular vote selected our president, as it should, Democrats would have been in office since 1992. Republicans can only win elections by deception and manipulation of the Electoral College. If there were no red and blue states, we would always have a Democrat in office, and the Pentagon would be forced to spend taxpayer dollars wisely by eliminating waste.
Op-Ed
By James Turnage
Follow me on twitter; @jamesturnagenov
The Truth With No Restrictions 