Fighter out flat on the canvas

Thef-35isa $1.7T mistake we keep paying for

When a consumer spends top dollar on a new home or car, they want everything to be perfect. They can be some of the most expensive purchases the average American makes in their lifetime. Buying a new home causes the American family to drain savings accounts and find cuts on non-essential expenditures. Many do it for the chance to get into a “turn-key home” requiring little to no home improvement projects.

Buying a new car ends up putting a person on the hook for a small mortgage payment for six years. Sure, there is always the option to buy used, but used comes with an increased risk of imperfections. When someone drops cash for new, they do so with the hopes that they will be free and clear of car maintenance issues for some time.

That is not what the American taxpayer is getting with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. They are paying top dollar for mediocre.

Ultimately, it is the taxpayers who are on the hook when the government hands a contractor hundreds of billions for a product that is not all that great. For the cost of the GDP of a small nation, the American taxpayer just got a flying lemon – over $1.5 trillion on a tool for the Pentagon that is far from perfect.

Right now, taxpayers are getting ripped off by a government contractor. The government uses phrases like “full-rate production” to confuse taxpayers into misunderstanding that they are paying top dollar for a fighter jet that is not ready for prime time.

Air Force Magazine reported on March 17, “the Pentagon won’t declare the F-35 to have completed development for a few months more at least, but even when that happens and the program is declared ready for full-rate production, there won’t be a big jump in the jets com

F-35 » 2B