Battle lines form over fate of F-22 fighter

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By Stephen Dinan

The Democrat-controlled Congress is challenging President Obamas resolve to cut an Air Force fighter plane program - a move the White House calls the first major test of its efforts to curb runaway spending and slash unneeded projects.

Mr. Obama and his spending-cut allies on Capitol Hill are going head-to-head with powerful Democratic committee chairmen and lawmakers from both parties with home-state interests in building the F-22 Raptor who are trying to add money for the fighter plane over the objections of the president and the Pentagon.

"The Pentagon doesn't want this plane; the Pentagon doesn't think we need this plane," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. He told The Washington Times that Mr. Obama will follow through on his threat to veto any bill that restores money for the fighter, and said the White House considers this battle to be the first test of Mr. Obama's vow to begin holding the line on spending.

Those words were echoed by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates who, in a speech Thursday, said the administration views the F-22 as a "red line."

"If we can't get this right, what on earth can we get right?" Mr. Gates said in a speech Thursday night to the Economic Club of Chicago. "It is time to draw the line on doing defense business as usual. The president has drawn that line. And that red line with regard to a veto is real."

Mr. Obama's budget froze the F-22 program at 187 planes, but lawmakers in both the House and Senate have added money back in for more.

In the House's defense spending bill, unveiled Thursday, Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat and chairman of the House's military spending subcommittee, added back $369 million for a dozen F-22s. Meanwhile, a cadre of senators led by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican, has tacked back on $1.75 billion for the F-22 in a defense bill pending on the Senate floor.

Now Mr. Obama's congressional allies are trying to cut that money back out.

"These are difficult and terrible economic times for America. We cannot afford business as usual. We cannot afford to continue to purchase weapons systems that are not absolutely vital to this nation's security," said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, who has teamed with Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, to try to cut the additional funding.

"Defending this nation and expenditures of the taxpayers' dollars for its defense should not be based on jobs," Mr. McCain said.