(03-04-2019, 06:20 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(03-04-2019, 01:38 PM)TJBender Wrote: This. We're continuing to sink billions upon billions into a fighter that makes pilots so disoriented that they puke in their helmets and is in many ways a step back from the rockstar F-16 it's replacing.

I would support removal of the penny, but the followup question is how badly consumer groups would muck everything up by demanding that all transactions be rounded up. Let's assume that the "compromise" solution is that all transactions are rounded up, and if the retailer has to give back a couple more cents than the register says to, the difference is taken back from sales tax. Now, how much is that lost sales tax costing the government, which will inevitably pass it on to us? Maybe municipalities raise sales tax rates, because they're probably the ones who will take the hit. Maybe it's states that do. Maybe property taxes get bumped a little, or vehicle registration fees go up. Who knows? The system, as it exists today, is not ready for life after the penny, because consumer groups will come in, sue the living crap out of everyone over the two cents that someone could lose on a given transaction and force a step back.

As someone that was directly involved with the program I can tell you that's a false allegation.  While I agree with MalibarJag that we way overspent on the F-35 when the F-22 is a much more superior jet (my opinion), the F-35 is actually going onto full production and is being delivered to the military.

The thing about this though is the topic of this thread is "Waste of Tax Payer Dollars".  I think that a much bigger waste than military spending (mandated by The Constitution) is the needless and useless waste of money spent on more "investigations" of "collusion" or now the term is "obstruction".  How much of our tax payer dollars are being spent on this?  Is it Congress's job to "investigate" or is their job to legislate and create laws?

Our national government has become a circus and it's not the current sitting President that is causing it, it's the current Congress.  The left is so intent on finding something to bring up impeachment proceedings and they are getting desperate.  All of the DOJ "investigations" have yielded nothing, so start another angle.  Rather than "collusion" it's now "corruption".

I've never seen such a deliberate, gross abuse of power and yet, the public doesn't bat an eye.

That's just not credible to me, dude.
First of all the Constitution doesn't work unless the different officers of the Constitution hold each other accountable. And yes that means lots of money spent on investigations whenever something new or questionable is occurring. If you don't like that, go live in a dictatorship. The total that we've spent on this investigation is less than one F-35.
I could buy that somehow the F-35 program will end up providing good value to us. I've already said I don't think it will, but let's leave that aside.

You don't get to invoke the fact that defense spending is mandated by the Constitution in favor of any and all defense spending.  There is a limit. At some point everyone must be willing to say "you know, we've spent enough on defense." Even if the point that I'm willing to say that comes earlier than the point that you're willing to say that, you don't get to claim that you're following the Constitution better than me just for that reason. That's just some bubblegum applesauce nonsense that the sons of men who work for defense contractors say to each other to make themselves feel better about the $22 trillion debt that they've contributed to the in this country.

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