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The Spectacle Blog
See here and here and then try to argue that this was more about technical substance than about raw politics. Conservatives always should have been in support of a split contract for the air refueling tanker, for reasons I have explained at great length on these pages, but if it HAD to be one or the other, conservatives ought to have supported EADS. More jobs. Non-union jobs. More long-term benefits. Better payload capacity. Fewer Democratic interest group entanglements. EADS North America headed by conservative Sean O’Keefe, survivor of the Ted Stevens plane crash. And all sorts of other good reasons, too.
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More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/28/boeing-contract-was-union-payo
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Ryan| 2.28.11 @ 12:04PM
EADS was clearly the lesser of two big evils here.
Ugh. The whole process was a prime example of both the worst part of corporatism and governmental ineptitude.
David T| 2.28.11 @ 12:32PM
Your ideological blinders are getting in the way of your judgment. Boeing is the world's best at building air refueling tankers and it beat EADS head-on in the price competition, even with union labor--US union labor. Stop with the "union pay-off" canard and instead celebrate a good news story for the US economy.
Dixie Pixie| 2.28.11 @ 1:31PM
David....EADS had a flying aircraft so their development and production costs were known.
Boeing has only a "paper" aircraft so their costs are only estimates and are historically prone to cost overruns.
A few things are certain, there will be fewer aircraft purchased than planned.
The aircraft will cost more than the current estimated price.
The aircraft will have major defects which will require major post-production fixes, generating further profits for Boeing.
The current tankers will still be flying in 2040 as the Boeing 767 tankers will be too few and too badly preforming to be a complete replacement.
The entire bidding process was a textbook model of corrupt politics from the Boeing leasing deal to the deal award.
David....face the facts. The better aircraft lost.
David T| 3.1.11 @ 11:18AM
For the record: Boeing also has a flying aircraft--see Italy and Japan
alvin| 2.28.11 @ 1:12PM
David, Is there a guarantee Boeing will build the ENTIRE plane in the US?
alvin| 2.28.11 @ 1:14PM
David, Is there a guarantee Boeing will build the ENTIRE plane in the US?
Derek Leaberry| 2.28.11 @ 2:23PM
I'm glad the American firm got the work. But why build it at all? We are running $ 1.5 trillion deficits and are on the road to fiscal ruin.
CalMark| 2.28.11 @ 2:51PM
Quin...I love ya, man, but get off your hobbyhorse.
First off, Boeing has been building aerial tankers for a half-century. Experience and reliability are worth something--and as someone who served many years in the military, I can tell you that during operations, those factors are worth a hell of a lot, in a way you won't see at the bottom of a column of figures.
Elswhere in today's AmSpec blog are reports that the Greenies are trying to de-industrialize Europe, and that to some extent they have already succeeded. These are the folks we should we rely on for crucial defense technology--to save a few bucks?
Air refueling tankers are vital to defense of U.S. interests. We should not rely on increasingly capricious and unreliable fair-weather European "allies" for--here's that word again--crucial defense technology.
Sorry, Quin. Sometimes The Rumsfeld School of Defense Management (motto: "Bottom Line Above All!") just doesn't work.
PhilTheCapitalistPig| 2.28.11 @ 3:28PM
Crony Capitalism
Oldefarte| 2.28.11 @ 4:08PM
Anyone supporting this POLITICAL/CHICAGO-WAY decision is a MORON. Boeing became the winner of this contract on November 2nd, 2008; period-END OF DISCUSSION!!!!!!!!!!