B-1 Stealth Bomber costing over $1 billion crashed......in February.

[kentuck]

Why did they wait until today to tell us? I guess it just doesn't have the same impact 5 months later? It crashed on take-off and burst into flames. A billion dollars up in flames!

Think about what that billion dollars could do? How many sick people could get healthcare with that one bomber? How many children could get new books and a better education? How many college grants gould be given to worthy young people with that billion dollars? How many people could be helped across this country with that billion dollars?

It is insane! That we spend so much money on these military weapons at the expense of the needs of our people. It angers and saddens me because I understand that no one will do anything about it. The military industrial complex has us by the balls. No Senator or Congressman would dare challenge their authority or right to defend us from the "terrorists" and other enemies. Our nation is spending over a trillion dollar every two years to "defend" ourselves. Sometimes I think we would be better off if we simply disbanded the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force and defend ourselves with local militias? Realistically, I can see no reason why each of these services could not be cut in half tomorrow - including our Intelligence Agencies. Our nation will forever be at risk for as long as these people hold our nation hostage. Why does no one talk about it?

[DFW]

1. I heard about that months ago

Still, the Cheneybush administration was in no hurry to discuss it
publicly with the media. After all, the money didn't come out of THEIR pocket.

[DS1]

2. It was plenty reported when it crashed

You apparently missed it.

The new news is that rain is what crashed it.

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Ike wasn't just alking out of his ass

when he warned Americans of the danger they would face of the MIC hijacking democracy.

[Snarkoleptic]

4. Uncle Dick, let's buy a bunch. They look really cool.

[Trillo]

5. Well, surely it was insured.

/snark

[Posteritatis]

6. They didn't wait

That was all over the news for a few days when it happened, and there was quite a bit of discussion about it on DU.

(It was a B-2, by the way. That's actually worse; those things are $2.2 billion. B-1s are "only" $200M.)

[AngryAmish]

7. 1. It was a B-2, not a B-1

2. It was widely reported at the time.

3. You should get some coffee.

[kentuck]

11. I stand corrected.

:-)

[dysfunctional press]

8. you'd think that they'd ante up for comprehensive insurance coverage on the fleet

even with a million-dollar-deductible, we'd probably still be dollars ahead.

[anigbrowl]

9. I heard it in February. It's just back in the news because the report came out last week.

There is no big cover up about it. Yes, they're ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately, in your outrage, you have gone to the opposite extreme of thinking that we don't need any national defense at all. Historically, that line of thinking tends not to work out too well either. Even if we drastically downgraded our military we'd still want to have a navy and air force. There's a difference between cutting back on defense spending and painting a target on your back.

As for the absolute amount of money, there's about 300 million people in the US while the b2-bomber costs about $1.5 billion (I'm using round numbers). So that little accident basically cost everyone in the country $5. Of course this could be used for other more useful things, but at the same time it's not that big an amount when you spread it over the 20 year life of the plane. A sense of proportion goes a long way, especially when dealing with large numbers.

Equally, when the Republicans yelp about $48 billion dollars in congressional earmarks they leave out the fact that This is only about 2% of the whole federal budget. By contrast, bush's economic stimulus in the last budget cost almost 4 times as much.

[Selatius]

12. What nation on earth is gonna paint a target on a country with 10,000+ atomic warheads?

We could spend 200 billion a year instead of 600+ billion a year and still outspend Russia and China combined.

[anigbrowl]

13. That's like saying you plan to keep your house ant-free by buying a sledgehammer.

Nukes are a pain in the ass to use. I'm not arguing for keeping a bloated defense budget but if you can't see the point in maintaining an air force and navy then this conversation is doomed to go nowhere.

[Selatius]

14. I never said get rid of the Air Force and Navy, but we're getting into specifics here.

We are getting into the definition of "bloat" at this point. What is a lean defense budget? 100 billion? 200 billion? The largest defense spender on the European continent is France at 40+ billion followed by Germany and Great Britain, and that's not counting the fact that France has a nuclear stockpile of their own. Russia currently spends somewhere around 65 billion a year.

[anigbrowl]

15. Oh I entirely agree. I thought you were referring to a post upthread.

[elehhhhna]

10. They let McCain pilot a STEALTH? What were they thinking?!!1!!

[backscatter712]

16. 2.2 billion dollar WHOOPSIE!!!

I remember there was a video of the crash. Turns out the cause was water getting in three airflow sensors that fed data to the plane's fly-by-wire computer - the computer got bad input, the computer directed the plane to pitch up violently just as it was taking off, the plane stalled, plummeted to the ground like a brick and pancaked on the runway, exploding in a 2.2 billion dollar fireball. Thankfully, the pilots ejected and were OK.

Here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZCp5h1gK2Q

[Festivito]

17. There goes $8, or $32 for a family of four.

Now, my Detroit mayor apparently lied and cheated and it cost $9Million tax dollars to pay his attorneys, that's $10 to me.
BUT, I got a whole $10 movie's worth of entertainment out his debacle.

This was not worth my $8.

[ForeignSpectator]

18. Not new, it's just now that there is footage of it out... wanna see? Lookee here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wowyMSHjRI

Over a billion $$$ up in smoke... just wow.

[Frank Cannon]

19. These two men could not be reached for comment