[Peace-discuss] @HuffPo: This Week, Let's Help Burlington Kill the $1.5 Trillion F-35 Taxpayer Ripoff

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/this-week-lets-help-burli_b_4018161.html

We have just a week left to help Burlington, Vermont kill the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter<http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/burlington-city-council?source=c.url&r_by=>,
the biggest taxpayer ripoff in human history. On Monday, October 7, the
Burlington City Council will vote on a binding resolution that would block
F-35 warplanes from being based at Burlington International Airport, which
is owned by the city.

If the Council votes to block the planes from being based in Burlington,
that won't kill the $1.5 trillion F-35 taxpayer ripoff by itself. But it
will set a crucial precedent. It will prove that the F-35 is politically
vulnerable. It will mark a historic defeat of pork-barrel military
Keynesianism by citizen engagement. It would help change the national
posture of Democrats on unnecessary military spending. It would help
abolish the dogma that Democrats have to support unnecessary military
spending when it takes place in their districts.

The dogma that Democrats have to support unnecessary military spending when
it takes place in their districts is deeply ingrained. But there's no
intrinsic reason why it should be true. Democrats wouldn't support federal
spending for propaganda against birth control if it took place in their
districts. Democrats wouldn't support federal spending to promote
homophobia if it took place in their districts. Why should Democrats
support federal spending for the taxpayer-ripoff, Social Security-cutting,
job-destroying F-35, just because it takes place in their districts?
[...]

-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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