F-22 funding - how the senate voted

The senate voted today to cut off funding for more F-22 fighters. The Obama administration had pushed the move.

Here's the roll call.

There's a fair amount of crossing over parties in both directions; some Democrats with manufacturing facilities in their states sadly decided they wanted to throw more money at this (i.e. Cantwell, Murray, Dodd, Shaheen, Boxer, Feinstein). In the other direction, Republicans voting on the correct side included Lugar, McCain and Coburn.

The F-22 vote was just part of Robert Gates' initiative to change what kinds of things the military buys (increasing total funding slightly; replacing things like the F-22 with other programs).

Back when Obama appointed Gates, Geithner, Summers, Duncan, Clinton and various other mediocre to bad folks, there was a lot of debate about if maybe there was some good to it -- that these people would actually provide cover for Obama doing progressive things. I was skeptical of that argument, but think the truth remains to be seen.

The case at hand, though, is almost surely a case of this theory being true. Robert Gates could sell to congress the idea of finally bringing F-22 purchases to an end.