That was the theory, anyway, and Lockheed-Martin was pushing it hard. The plane had been on the drawing boards since 1996, and the Pentagon had run tests on it and a competitor from Boeing. They had actually built prototypes, and in early October of 2001, shortly after I became President, the Pentagon had picked the F-35 over the Boeing F-32 and moved it into the next step of the system, which was a more detailed design and engineering program that would lead to a contract to build the planes. Now it was in my lap to kill it off.
I knew, from my knowledge from before, that this gizmo was going to be a monumental boondoggle. While I had never really followed the technical stuff then, the program had been such a disaster as to make all sorts of national headlines. The Navy version never really worked; the stealth features and the overall shape of the plane didn’t allow a tail hook to be installed, and by the time they fixed that it was a totally different bird from the Air Force version. The Marine vertical takeoff version was even more dangerous than the AV-8 Harrier it was replacing, and the Marines issued orders to not use that feature, which made it an incredibly expensive land based fighter. Only the Air Force version actually performed as expected, and at $100-plus million a plane was several times more expensive than the perfectly fine aircraft it replaced. Already foreign buyers were starting to ask some pointed questions about affordability, and the price was still less than half what it would ultimately become.
Lockheed-Martin fought back on several fronts. This was going to be a major moneymaker for them, and might well be the last manned combat jet ever made, before the robots took over. They were pushing on two fronts, one public and one political. The public front was the most obvious. The costs really weren’t that high, each plane was three to four times as effective as older planes, America had to stay Number One and this was the way to do it — if Jesus was going to fly a fighter, he would fly the F-35! There were a lot of numbers that could be spun to show that the F-35 was the plane to buy.
The political attack was much more dangerous. For decades now the weapons manufacturers had realized that the real buyer of their gear wasn’t the Pentagon, but Congress. As a result, they spread out subcontracting and parts supplies across as many states and districts as possible. The F-35 might be assembled in Fort Worth, Texas, but the parts were coming from everywhere, from Maine to California, and from Florida to North Dakota. In some cases they went to the extreme of buying parts from a supplier barely capable of making them, in a state farther away and for more money, simply to get the production into another Congressional district, and get that Congressman on board. Even the Maryland Ninth had seen this sort of thing. We didn’t actually build weapons in suburban Maryland, but we did build some electronics, some of which went into weapons.
When we announced plans to cancel the F-35, the pushback was immediate. Lockheed-Martin sent a representative, usually retired military, to each and every Congressman and Senator with any kind of production for it in their state or district, even if it was simply a ball bearing. They were informed that the F-35 was vital to America and that without it the angry hordes would be swamping our borders and eradicating our way of life. Worst of all, it would end up closing down a factory, and throwing thousands of people out of work! ‘By the way, Congressman, this other fellow I am with is representing a lobbying group for our nation’s defense, and he would like to discuss campaign contributions with you.’ The various military suppliers had this down to a fine art by now, and often used each other as subcontractors and component suppliers, so that we ended up facing a unified wall. More than a few politicians have caved in over the years.
I was willing to take a lot of heat over this, and our counterattack focused on things we could do cheaper, like continuing to buy newer, updated versions of the existing proven airplanes. The F-15, F-16, and F-18 all worked, so let’s keep improving them. Also, for times when you absolutely need stealth, or simply can’t risk pilots, let’s use drones, which cost a fraction of the price, and were getting more powerful and useful by the day. Above all, Congressman, which programs in your district should we cut to pay for this? Have you talked to the old folks there about closing that hospital they like, so the funds can be given to the Pentagon? No, well, I am sure you’d like to see taxes rise, because President Buckman is not going to pay for this stuff by borrowing the money from the Chinese!
Some of these conversations took place privately, and some took place on the Sunday news shows. A valuable ally proved to be the defense industry itself, since one of the things I was promising was that we weren’t necessarily cutting the budget, but we were certainly rearranging it. Lockheed-Martin was fighting for the F-35, but Boeing wanted all that money so it could build F-15s and F-18s, and there were a number of drone manufacturers who were promising things for their chunk of the change. A certain portion of my plan involved getting them to fight each other. Their plan was to increase the military budget, so that they could have their cake and eat it, too. They wanted the Pentagon to buy all those other planes and F-35s!
There were a number of political initiatives that spring aimed at forcing me to back down and reinstate the F-35 development program. First, by mid-May, came a non-binding resolution out of Congress urging a reconsideration of the program, which got overwhelming support. Even the most liberal of Democrats could vote for a resolution to keep studying something, especially if it came wrapped in a campaign contribution. I ignored it and didn’t budge.
The next step was a series of amendments to other spending bills. This is a marvelous and time honored tactic to get something passed, sometimes for good and sometimes not. You take an ordinary bill that everybody wants, say a highway spending bill, and then you tack on a rider or amendment, for something else. That other thing can be on anything under the sun, such as a subsidy for cotton candy manufacturing (sponsored by sugar manufacturers). Sometimes they are harmless. Often times they are controversial, like an amendment to ban Federal funding of birth control or a requirement to only teach abstinence. They could even affect overseas policy, by attaching a rider to a bill that would ban exporting condoms (right wing) or require the recipients of foreign aid to not be military dictatorships (left wing).
The big thing is to attach the amendment to something that has to be passed, or else! If you want the budget bill to pass, you have to sign it into law with all the riders still attached. I could sign something with a harmless rider (cotton candy support) but if I balked at an F-35 rider, then would I be willing to veto the budget bill? You were playing chicken with the national economy. This could really backfire! This is in effect what Newt had done when he shut down the government. He went head to head with Clinton, and Newt ended up blinking. In addition, you can have your side add a competing rider which is anathema to the other side, so that nobody wants the damn thing passed!
Nine times out of ten, this sort of crap never makes it out of committee to the floor where it can get voted on, or if it does get voted on, it gets yanked in the conference committee when the Senate and House reconcile their different bills. It has to be something that is really special to make it to the President’s desk, for instance, when the committee chairmen get enough of a payoff. In June, the F-35 development program was added back to the budget as a rider on a bill to increase spending on port security and infrastructure, and made its way through the committees and onto the House floor. It passed the House, and failed in reconciliation, so they tried it again on a bigger bill related to the overall budget, and this time it passed.