Obama Cuts C-17 from Budget? Cutting C-17 loses 30,000 Jobs

While all is silent on the serious news of the Obama administration's latest outrages, and while the focus is on Fox News and Shirley Sherrod, Obama is signaling he will cut the budget for purchases of the C-17 used in military operations and humanitarian disasters. Some 30,000 jobs will be lost if the cut is made.

C-17

From The Daily Caller:

There is strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for maintaining and purchasing the widely versatile and highly capable C-17 airlifter. It is the only U.S. made military wide-body airlifter, and it is the most flexible and most capable airlifter in the world. The C-17 can perform strategic and tactical missions, and serve military and humanitarian functions. It can land on standard runways and austere remote dirt airfields anywhere around the world. It can airlift troops, equipment, and supplies on a moment’s notice, as well as perform medical evacuations.

Additionally, the C-17 is also the logistical backbone of emergency relief and humanitarian efforts worldwide. The C-17 was key in delivering timely aid to Haiti and Chile after earthquakes and helping with clean up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Simply stated, whether in time of war or peace, the C-17 is critically needed.

This is good news for our friends, the Russians and the French

...if the administration gets its way and effectively shuts down the C-17 program, just a few short years down the road we taxpayers will have to pay out billions to ramp up a new plane and production line or we’ll be forced to go to the Russians or the French in hopes that they will bail us out by selling us or leasing to us second-rate airlift aircraft.

Obama released details of his $3.5 trillion budget plan, with over $17 billion in proposed cuts. Republican Minority Leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) says the cuts "do not go far enough:"

Some of the savings would come from items such as shutting down production of the C-17 aircraft, canceling funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage program, cutting farm subsidies, ending some scholarship programs and reducing federal travel, among many others.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) said the cuts are "a baby step....It's as if you took a teaspoon of water out of a bathtub while you left the spigot on at full speed...It's as if this were the Gobi Desert or the Sahara Desert, and you came along and you took a few pieces of sand."


George Landrith, the author of The Daily Caller piece linked above, compares the cut of the C-17 to a homeowner refusing to patch a hole in their roof to save $200 this month, and he notes that this move will cost more American jobs, as the C-17 provides 30,000 jobs in 44 states flowing $5.8 billion into the economy.