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On July 20th, Robert Burns filed an Associated Press story titled, " Cohen Rebukes House Over F-22 Vote ".
The article began rather innocently with, " Defense Secretary William Cohen criticized a House panel Tuesday for not consulting with the Pentagon before voting to suspend development of the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter jet ". He continued, " The House Appropriations Committee voted to suspend production of the F-22 fighter and to use the $1.8 billion earmarked for it in the fiscal 2000 budget to purchase more of the current Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighters and to boost pilot bonuses. The full House takes up the issue later this week ".
On the surface, this reporting would lead you to believe that the Republican controlled committee was killing a new weapons system that was quite far along in it's developement; something which is quite unbelievable. At least, Burns did mention that it would come before the full House of Representitives for a final vote.
Burns then quoted Cohen, " The purpose is quite obvious, I think, and that is to avoid any public discussion, public debate, and any ability on the Air Force or the contractors' part to respond to questions raised...This was done in this fashion in order to be able to recommend the termination of a major program without any countervailing argument or pressure ".
Wait a minute here, didn't Burns just mention that " it " was coming in front of the full House " later "? This gives the powers that be, and in fact Burns himself, enough time to voice their opinions. Burns himself even adds, " Earlier Tuesday, Cohen was asked about the subject during an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee ". Okay, so what gives? That certainly sounds like they are going by the book, to me? Now, an Executive Order by Bill Clinton declaring some dictatorial type of action, or attacking Yugoslavia without asking the Congress; that is an example of taking a selfish action!
Here is what it really is all about:
The Congress passed an appropriations bill for the Department of Defense as the Clinton/Gore War in Yugoslavia was ongoing. The White House, and much of the extreme left wing media, assumed this funding was for Clinton to squander on his faux pseudo image building foreign bombing campaigns. Sure there was some money earmarked for Kosovo in there, but not the billions that the Clinton/DNC/NATO/Whitehouse spinmeisters would have you believe. So the Clinton administration figured they could spend the Defense Department money on whatever imperialistic schemes of phoney conquest or legacy creation routines they could imagine. Well, the Republican controlled Congress is not going to bankroll the " Bill Clinton Marching And Chowder Society " with taxpayer money and they are not going to allow them to use the money in the defense appropriations for other devious politically motivated purposes. Thus they refuse to further fund big Democratic donor Lockheed's developement of the F-22 ( personally, I liked the Northrop fly-off ATF version better, and it actually had better performance than the Lockheed F-15 hybrid so called the F-22 ).
So, it all boils down to the Congress holding it's ground against a President who wants to spend money that he doesn't have to spend, and the Congress is not going to back down and request more money. I say, " bully " for them, in not collapsing like they have been doing all year!
I suppose that you wouldn't expect Burns to put anything so intuitive, or off the wall, as what I contend, in a pure report of what happened in Washington...
To his credit, Burns did report at the end, though almost like an add-on, " But committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., noted the move to freeze the F-22 program was supported by some of the House's most pro-military members. ' We can't be giving you a blank check to buy aircraft,' he told Cohen ".
See how easy it is to report something, but not make the appropriate connections!
- Bongo ( Show me your Bill Clinton autographed knee-pads? )
