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Moore: Alaska could learn something from the Pentagon's F-35 mess

I can't stop thinking about an article I read this week. It's coloring so much of what I'm thinking about.

The U.S. military -- specifically the Air Force, Navy and Marines -- has spent $400 billion on an airplane that doesn't work. The plane is so unstealthy that 1950s-era radar can detect it. For nine of the last 13 years, the aircraft have been grounded by "takeoff issues." What issues? Oh, catching on fire. (Although, let's admit, catching fire before takeoff seems preferable to catching fire after.) There are software issues that won't allow the fighter to fire its weapons until 2019.

During a simulated war scenario, the F-35 was found to be "double-inferior" because it "can't turn, can't climb, can't run."

After spending $400 billion on this craptastic runway ornament, the cost meter continues to tick away. The estimated cost of the F-35 program is expected to reach $1.45 trillion.

According to an interview with Pierre Sprey, an inventor of the F-16 fighter jet, "the mission of the (F-35) airplane is for the U.S. Congress to send money to Lockheed Martin."

Journalist Tom Cahill considered some of the other things $1.45 trillion might be used for.

For example, he estimated that $1.45 trillion is the "cost of providing tuition-free public higher education for every student in the U.S. until 2039." That works out to $62 billion a year in funding for education.

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So with this plane vs. education tradeoff stuck in my head, I've been looking at our state expenditures through the same filter. What are we spending money on that could be better used elsewhere?

We just learned that Republican state Sen. Lesil McGuire spent $40,000 on travel last year, including trips to Greenland and Paris. Which is to say, she spent your money and mine collecting cool passport stamps. Good thing the state doesn't have a budget crisis.

The Anchorage lawmaker racked up more air miles junketing than a Slope worker commuting from Tempe, Arizona. She spent more money traveling than a pre-K teacher made in salary for the year. She justified these junkets by explaining that we're paying to make her a smarter legislator on Arctic issues. Unfortunately, now that she is an ever-so-smart lawmaker on Arctic issues, she's decided to quit the Legislature. Anyone want to bet she'll be out hustling to cash in on her state-funded junior year abroad?

Alaska Dispatch News columnist Charles Wohlforth wrote on Feb. 2 about the state's $184 million rail line to nowhere. (Well, not literally nowhere; it goes to the woods on Point MacKenzie.) The rail extension, a pet project of the all-Republican Mat-Su legislative delegation, is just one of the latest boondoogles to pour millions of state dollars down the nearest rathole.

At least, Wohlforth points out, the local moose have found the rail bed useful.

Good thing the state doesn't have a budget crisis.

The list of state-funded money-wasting megaprojects is long. The Knik Arm Bridge has succeeded only as an amazingly expensive friends-and-family employment scheme for contractors and employees of KABATA. (Rest assured, the tens of millions of dollars spent on that white elephant will never result in a bridge.) The mismanaged Port of Anchorage expansion remains a financial sinkhole, although one that wasted more federal than state dollars.

And let's not forget that shining example of legislative waste and fraud on Fourth Avenue. The Legislature's Republican leadership spent millions on a fancy, unnecessary new Legislative Information Office building. How many school lunches could we have provided for hungry children just by depriving legislators of their automatic garbage cans?

The Republican leadership of the Legislature argues that providing basic health care to the working poor is an unconscionable squandering of money. Their solution? Waste big bucks suing the governor to stop the program. Could they possibly be any more clueless, or more cynical?

Alaska is still burning mounds of cash on the prospective environmental mistake known as the Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project. I'm for renewable energy, but not at the expense of world-class salmon habitat. This is another of those money pits that will enrich a select few in the process of never getting built. Even so, this Legislature won't have the good sense to pull the plug on it.

Good thing the state doesn't have a budget crisis.

Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser.

Shannyn Moore

Shannyn Moore is a radio broadcaster. You can hear her show, "The Last Word," Monday through Friday 4-6 p.m. on KOAN 95.5 FM and 1080 AM and 1480 We Act Radio in Washington, D.C., and on Netroots Radio.The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

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