Matt Yglesias explains the larger meaning of the decision to cut funding for the F-22:
Overshadowed during this week’s continuing debate about health care was a crucially important step in Congress: The United States Senate voted 58-40 in favor of an amendment to strip funding for the F-22 fighter plane out of the Department of Defense Appropriations bill.
At $350 million per plane, the F-22 is extraordinarily expensive. It’s also remarkably irrelevant to contemporary military challenges. Indeed, for all its advanced capabilities, none of our existing F-22s have ever seen action in either Iraq or Afghanistan. The debate over the F-22 matters, however, not just because of the waste of money. It matters because it’s a fundamental test of whether or not the United States’ civilian government can gain some form of control over the Pentagon.
