V-22: 10.4 Billion Dollars Sunk!

Well, it's Friday nite--the time when scandals are announced, bad decisions are made and big players have already snuck away, out of reach of the media. Yep. Somebody at the Pentagon just tied American taxpayers to a $10.4 Billion dollar contract to build 167 Ospreys. That's two to three DDG-1000s. Or 20 of the fancy LCSs...Or a ton of CH-53s.

Is it worth our money? Nope. Not with cheaper alternatives out there--alternatives that are doing just fine on the battlefield. At some point in the next five years, when we're desperate to find money to field troops or push forward other, more important projects, we'll regret the fact that we taxpayers got roped into this long-term deal. But the corks will be popping all over Chicago and in Providence and in Texas tonight. They brought it home. Congrats.

That said, we're at war. We're in debt up to our eyeballs. Where's the fiscal discipline? Who has the guts to tell people too emotionally invested in their little project--or too freaked out by the money already sunk--to pack it in.

We can't keep programs alive just for the sake of keeping them--or to hope that the money subsidizes development of a civilian-useful model...We just don't have that luxury. Not anymore.

Gotta wonder who whispered news to Cramer, though.