R.I.P., F-22

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted 58-40 to stop production of the F-22 stealth fight plane. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had lobbied extensively—if not surprisingly—to close the program, and President Barack Obama vowed to veto the waiting defense bill if it contained funding for more F-22s. Fred Kaplan of Slate is apt to call the vote “the beginning of a new phase in defense politics.”

With $60 billion already spent on the R&D and production of the jets, this decision reflects a shift in the balance of congressional budgets and policies in respect to defense contractors. The vote was not split along party lines: the vote represented local corporate defense contracts. In support of continuing the F-22 program included California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. Let’s hope this vote represents a new but seemingly forgotten value of spending less on things we don’t need. Demilitarization will not happen overnight, but it appears that the American government has begun recognizing there are more pressing domestic issues to which taxpayer money should be allocated.