New SASC member: solution for F-35; 'Fully fund it' (Just like industry fully funded him?)

The new chair for the air-land subcommittee for the Senate Armed Services Committee has a solution for the F-35 program: 'Fully fund it'. (JSF News).

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was given the panel's job Tuesday Morning.

“I’m a supporter of the Joint Strike Fighter. And I’ll continue to be. A lot of the problems have been resolved. I’m hoping it will [avoid] any further obstacles or funding challenges.”

United Technologies  Pratt and Whitney, who makes the jet engine for the F-35, calls Connecticut home.

To be fair, while the JSF News post mentions:

He didn’t tell the reporter that in 2011 both Lockheed Martin and F135 engine manufacturer United Technologies were paying considerable amounts to him during his election campaign as a senator.

...Blumenthal's Open-Secrets record on campaign contributuions isn't anything special in this area compared to other LM/UT-PW trough-feeders.

Still, politicians do want to get elected. In order to do that in a corrupt campaign finance system, they have to find money. Campaign funding from industry, industry employees, and those of the rent-seeking class provide that money.

Part of the big F-35 industry strategy is to buy politicians. It is completely legal.
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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013 
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Aviation Week (ARES blog) F-35 posts (2007 to present)
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie


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