Kagen Calls for End to Wasteful Defense Spending

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

May 25, 2010

KAGEN  CALLS  FOR  END  TO  WASTEFUL  DEFENSE  SPENDING

STARTING  WITH  EXTRA  JET  ENGINE  PROGRAM

Secretary Gates agrees that extra JSF engine is unnecessary

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve Kagen, M.D. today expressed his opposition to the military’s Extra Engine Program for the Joint Strike Fighter, a program that wastes taxpayer dollars, costs American jobs and diverts resources away from our troops when they need them most.

“For too long, wasteful military spending on outdated defense projects has crippled our ability to invest in items of greater human value, like new, higher-wage jobs and the education of all our children,” said Dr. Kagen.  “We must invest our defense dollars more wisely, while caring for all our troops and their families.”

Kagen endorses Secretary Gates’ assessment that “a second engine for the JSF is unnecessary, wasteful, and simply diverts precious modernization funds from other more pressing priorities.”  As such, he will join several of his colleagues in seeking to eliminate this project from the Defense Department budget.

Earlier this month, Dr. Kagen also sent a letter to Secretary Gates commending him for his leadership on cutting wasteful spending from the military budget, and offered to join him in his fight.  Kagen asked for guidance from Gates’ staff on where the most responsible spending cuts can be made and looks forward to making these adjustments in the budget, in addition to the extra JSF engine.

Dr. Kagen, a vocal opponent of wasteful spending, voted against every bailout of the big banks on Wall Street and has long been critical of waging two wars at the same time, in Iraq and Afghanistan, without asking citizens to pay for them.

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