Bay State lawmakers dive into fight over the F-22 fighter jet

Frank would rather the money go right in his pockets .. what a phony he is!

If Gates is looking to balance the military budget,....he needs to evaluate and retire the equipment that is too old to operate or can no longer be serviced. In turn, those dollars should help close the budget gap. The F-18 fleet is 20 plus years old and needs to be replaced. Building paper air planes aren't the solution, especially if we get into a conflict with North Korea.

We need the F-22. The economy needs the jobs not to mention all the work that will come with servicing those aircraft in years to come.

I guess they're not made in MA. That would be the only reason a MA politician would vote against it - even a liberal.

We need the F22!!!! These politicians are so clueless!!! Do they have any idea how many local businesses were involved in making the Components for this Jet locally? If this program is cut the job losses for Massachusetts and NH will be very high. Now how does that help the economy of Massachusetts? Lift your head up out of the sand and keep in mind you represent this state and your job description includes saving jobs.

You tell 'em Barney!

With North Korea rattling its sabers, the need for advanced technologies such as the F-22 are even more important than ever. The F-35 is NOT equivalent to the F-22 - not in its planned mission, and not in its capabilities. Each have unique roles, and were designed to compliment each other - not step on each others toes. Secretary Gates surely should know this.

I'm sure the (military) enemies of the United States are grinning ear-to-ear with the news that the Raptor may only be made in limited quantities.

Barney Frank may actually be correct on this issue. Very rare for him.

The people of Newton should be forever ashamed that they have put a man like this in a position where he can affect the nation's security. What a joke.

Barney Franks...AGAINST national Defense? Who would have thought it! Partisan hacks, on both sides, trying to buy votes with federal dollars? I'm shocked.
If those planes where being built in Mass, you can bet Franks would suddenly be in favor of them.

Forcing the government to buy F-22's it doesn't need is bad for the security of this country and anti-American.

Pork before country, right House Armed Services Committee? Losers...

US military power is predicated on air superiority, without control of the air the US military would be forced into bloody and drawn out battles with our ground forces taking heavy casualities from enemy air power.

To think that in the future our enemies might not posses an air force capable of challenging out dated fighters (most of our current fleet was designe in the 1970s) is both irresponsible and naive.

riight because taking our air superiority out makes so much sense. Let military do military not people pretending to know what they are doing. Frank is Useless scum

Barney is a disgrace to this state. He's not even an expert in his current role and we're supposed to listen to him on defense!?!?

House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 10, 2003:

Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there's a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios. . . .

Who are we fighting or gonna fight that has weapons that outperform us now or in the future? Soviets don;'t have money to keep their military machime running. China still is well behind us(maybe sheer numbers be their weapon) ! The money could be better spent with 14 million not working and 50 million uninsured for healthcare. Most in working in the military complex make good money, now it's time for them to be downsized!

Barney Frank should have been terminated because of his forced mortgage lending requirements. He should be held accountable for his own actions. Nice that the Glove reported that he alone was fairing well despite the economic environment. How is it ok for him to invest in munis from MA when noone else can invest in companies that are directly associated with them and their advice. I would say a MA muni should not be an option for F Barney. Conflict of interest. Furthermore, when will Obama's crew realize that without small and large business there will be no jobs. Keep taxing them and they will simply go bankrupt. Like our government. Oh, but then again, he can continue to DIMINISH the value of the dollar by printing more money than he has. I say take a look at the state of Maine. Flat tax.

Bravo Mr. Frank and Mr. Tierney! Someone needs to stand up to congress members that SELFISHLY put whats good for their supporters and certain constituents over what is good for the nation during this trying time.

Ironic, as Frank has been jetting all over the place of late.

Makes perfect sense Barney. This country is under constant terrorist threat but you want to keep the money flowing to 'community development' aka giving mortgages to people who can't/won't pay the money back. Funding the jets keeps the country safe and creates jobs. Funding subprime mortgages costs money now for the funding and later for the repo, with no return ever. Seems like a no brainer to me.
Will the taxpyers of this state ever learn?

You can always count on liberals to raise taxes and hate the military. I'm sure Barney Fwank would rather spend that money on welfare and union mob bosses.

Forcing the military to buy/build more planes, ships, submarines and weapons than they want, need or requested has been going on for decades by members of Congress who want to be able to claim to have brought or kept jobs in their districts come election time, wasting taxpayer dollars in the process. Good to see local Congressional members trying to put a stop to this nonsense.

I bet BARNEY and Tierney don't feel the same about Obama's plan to stop the F136 engine. They are so far in GE's pockets it is sinful. What a shame that the former great state of Massachusetts has these kind of lawmakers.

Oooohh... way to take a stand on wasteful government spending Congressmen. $369 million???? Unfortunately with the trillions being in Washington this amounts to less than a rounding error. Leave it to Frank to grandstand and pat himself on the back for being a hawk on spending. Gee, what will we do without the materials to build those 12 jets???? Shame on Frank for calling a press conference to congratulate himself for something so relatively frivelous, and shame on the Globe for eating up the spin and posting it as the lead story on the website. What a joke.

Barney Frank has zero credibility after his performance in creating the current economic mess and anything he has to say is absolute nonsense. He should leave defense debates and decisions to the people who are competent in the subject and stick to what he knows best… oh right… that would be nothing!!

It's surreal that the man most responsible for destroying the economy would chide others about monopoly money. Hang your heads in shame Newton.

While a wonder of technology and engineering, the F-22 is an air superiority fighter / bomber that unfortunately came to be at the wrong time. While there may be some need for aircraft of this type, the days of dogfighting and slipping past the enemy radar are waning if not gone. Some will argue that the Russians and maybe the Chinese are a threat who to this day continue to develop cutting edge aircraft, but we all know deep down that if it came to war with either, it would be fought from the missile silos of the midwest and the submarines and missile cruisers all over the world. For once, I agree with Barney Frank (although his arrogance and just plain being annoying still bug me). We need to spend the defense money, but we need to be smart about it. I'd love to see the numbers on how many of the house members who voted for it simply did it because they've got re-election interests and their constituents are made up largely of folks who would be building these planes or parts for them. I hate for people to lose jobs, but I also hate to spend another half a trillion on something that doesn't show up on sophisticated super sensitive radar and can shoot down enemy planes from 50 miles away when the enemy we need to worry about rides a donkey and carries a rusty old AK47.

What the Globe article left out is that the Air Force technical analysis shows that our nation needs aproximately 250 F-22s in order to ensure a "moderate level" of risk to ensuring air superiority in the next two decades. If we stop now, we are endangering our nation's future security as we can't just re-start the factory in time of desparate need. China and Russia are both fielding new fighters, and are militarizing beyond defensive needs. We can't just assume that we will no longer need high tech defense weapon systems against Taliban fighters with no air force. Barney Frank has opposed defense spending for his all-too long tenure in Congress. The F-22 is just his "Target du Jour!" He's a well-known anti- defense hack.