Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called something a "scandal and a tragedy" and also "disgraceful" this week, and he's absolutely right. McCain was talking about the delays and cost overruns of the new F-35 stealth jet. It's the replacement for the A-10 Thunderbolt/Warthog and the F-16 Fighting Falcon/Viper (think: Air Force Thunderbirds).
The cost for nearly 2,500 of these planes was supposed to be a little more than $200 billion. We're now going on $400 billion in costs. They promised more than 1,000 planes would be done by the end of this fiscal year. So far we have 179. The Air Force variant (they have variations based upon the branch of the military) has been delayed until October. The Navy won't have theirs until November.... of 2018. Even worse, the F-35s they have produced are still "not acceptable for combat," according to the Pentagon's chief weapons tester.
We've also got disagreements by people who should know how long it will take to get it fixed. Let's just take the ALIS, which is basically the in-board, high-tech computer. There are a lot of technical issues, but let's just say it's not working yet. The F-35's Air Force program manager said they're only running two months behind, and it'll be working by October. But the Pentagon's chief weapons tester said 2018 is more realistic. So one is saying the other isn't realistic, while the other is giving a still-delayed, yet more optimistic view. These are the people who should know.
When we get into millions and billions of dollars, it's easy to lose track of how much that really means. Let's approximate and say that the F-35 program alone is about $200 billion too much. That's roughly equal to the FY 2016 appropriations of the EPA, the Department of Education, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, NASA and the Department of the Interior COMBINED. Now, it's not fair to say that the F-35 program is a one-year program — it's not, and has been going since 2007. But let's do the math. Take $200 billion over 9 years, and it's roughly $22.2 billion a year. That's pretty close to the Department of Energy's 2016 budget ($24.6 billion). If the Department of Energy spent twice their annual budget and still didn't have much to show for it, the nation would be in an uproar. People would be fired. The President would be in hot water.
But why isn't this a bigger deal? It seems this should be more upsetting to more people, but it doesn't get a lot of attention. And that's because we have a blind spot when it comes to military spending. There's certainly a "do what you must" attitude when it comes to military/protection costs. The technology for the F-35 is incredible, no doubt, like custom-built $400,000 helmets that give 360-degree views around the plane thanks to camera projections (AMAZING!). But you wouldn't buy the top-of-the-line home security system, then have it continuously delayed and cost twice as much and still consider it a great investment. At this point, they should just rename it the F-35 Albatross, because of the frustrating burden the program has become around the neck of the government.
A quick aside: There's a weird split when you watch the 6-minute TV clip attached to the Fox News story. Their "defense specialist/War Games columnist" spends the entire time talking about how "on track" the program is and how "next generation" the F-35 technology, guns, and helmet are. To be fair to her, that's a clip from November. But it's strange that's the first thing that appears in a story titled "Most expensive weapon ever built limps toward finish line." I'm sure some enterprising editor or reporter thought that'd be a good video to embed, but it tells a completely different story than the story it's attached to.
Debts to Society
At first, I was outraged that a governor (Va. Gov. Terry McAuliffe) would restore the voting rights of 200,000 felons. On its face, it sounds upsetting and ridiculous. That's certainly the impression one gets from reading the headline. But that's why you can't just read the headline. McAuliffe only restored the voting rights of ex-felons who have finished any sort of supervision, probation, or parole requirements. This brings up a broader issue: When has a person paid their debt to society after committing a crime? If the punishment is X years in prison and X years of probation, then have they paid their debt after completing that punishment? McAuliffe says yes. For a long time, the answer has been that felons will never get their voting rights back. And your answer to a person's debt to society brings up another issue: Is the goal of sentencing to be a punishment or to bring about reformation? I'm not sure I know the answer. I do know that if we believe sentencing should cause reformation in the convicted, then we're probably not doing a good job of that.
Summary Judgments
If you haven't seen the winners of the World Photography Awards, take just a few seconds and see how beautiful they are. • • • The campaigns are entering the silly months. The Trump campaign believes Hillary Clinton is just playing "the woman card," while Ted Cruz referred to a basketball hoop as a "basketball ring." Just... sigh. • • • Every time there is a mass shooting, I think about Australia. Here's what Australia did after a national tragedy, rather than nothing. • • • I don't watch Jimmy Kimmel, but this rant about Dennis Hastert is absolutely on point. If you can't get upset about a former national leader admitting to being a child molester, then recalibrate your outrage meter. • • • One of the day care workers who takes care of our kids said that Evie was taking flash cards with letters on them, and bringing them to her and saying the correct letter. I can't speak for Alyson, but that blows my mind. She's 20 months old and knows some of her letters! • • • Roland, on the other hand, has gotten really good at repeating words that you say. I think his vocabulary is bigger than Evie's. It's sad that they're not even 2 years old, and Alyson and I are already resorting to spelling words for fear that they pick up on it and demand it (Almost always food.).
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