Good News for Obama: Senate Denies F-22 Funding

The Senate today voted to reject a request for $1.75 billion to fund the F-22 fighter-jet program. This is a bright spot for the president amid a swirl of criticism over his health-care plans, rising jobless numbers, and falling poll numbers. And it's evidence that he retains considerable sway over congressional Democrats. Obama threatened to veto the defense-appropriations bill if it contained funding for more than four F-22s, but it was unclear until today whether Democrats would fall in line. Not all of them did─this afternoon's vote crossed party lines. Republicans including John McCain and Judd Gregg voted to veto funding, while Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman had hoped the program would continue. Regardless, this is a significant political victory for both the White House and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, saving them both from potential embarrassment. Gates has been an ardent proponent of scrapping the troubled F-22 program. In a speech in Chicago last Thursday, he argued for the need to fundamentally reshape how the Pentagon does business, namely how it develops and purchases weapons systems. Today's vote represents a concrete step toward achieving that end.

The F-22 Raptor was developed in the 1980s as a replacement for the F-15. But it was conceived during the Cold War, when the largest threat to American security was a techologically advanced Soviet Union, and it has been riddled with problems. The F-22 has crashed multiple times during test flights, most recently in March, when a crash resulted in the death of test pilot David Cooley. And it's expensive to operate─about $44,000 per hour of flight. The plane has never flown in Afghanistan or Iraq. Gates would like to see the funds spent on other Defense Department priorities.