The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee defeated an amendment to a defense spending bill on Tuesday that would have preserved funding for the U.S. fleet of A-10 “Warthog” aircraft.
The Pentagon, facing budget cuts, decided to eliminate all 283 of the tank-killer jets, saying it would save $3.7 billion over the next five years plus another $500 million in planned aircraft upgrades.
The committee voted 23-13 against the amendment to the annual appropriations bill, which was introduced by U.S. Representative Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican.
While busy funding God knows what else with taxpayer money, the detached loons on Capitol Hill are ignoring the people who lay everything on the line to preserve our freedom:
The 40-year-old, slow-flying Warthog is enormously popular among soldiers and Marines. The heavily armored aircraft can withstand ground fire while loitering for long periods above a battlefield spraying 30mm armor-piercing, depleted-uranium cannon rounds at tanks and other targets.
My good friend and Desert Storm vet Col. Kurt Schlichter summed up this insanity succinctly in a recent Memorial Day post:
The Taliban hates the A-10 with a cold fury. You can’t get higher praise. Naturally, the geniuses in Washington want to get rid of it and replace it with zillion dollar supersonic jets that are utterly unsuited for the job of frontline air support. Why? They claim we just can’t afford the plane we already have.
So, when some lieutenant is in contact out in the field, and the jihadi swarms are advancing to overrun his platoon, we can just tell him that we had many, many more important things to spend our money on besides ensuring that he and his troopers aren’t massacred.
But student loans or something, right Washington?
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