A victory over Pentagon bloat- thanks to you!

Flickr photo via Rob Shenk

Thanks to your help, we flooded Congress with opposition to the F-22 fighter jet, and both the House and Senate voted to cut wasteful funding for planes even the Pentagon doesn’t want (click here to see the Senate roll call; here for the House). This is an important step toward smart defense spending, and we couldn’t have done it without your energetic efforts. THANK YOU!

Nobody thought this was going to be easy. We were up against powerful weapons contractors who spread F-22 jobs across 44 states, just so the program would be hard to kill. I was walking the halls of Congress in the days leading up to the Senate vote, where the real battle happened, and none of us knew what to expect. But in the end, thanks to pressure from President Obama from above and you from below, the voice of reason won out and the funding was slashed.

This is only one step toward a sane defense budget. We have shown that we can beat the weapons lobby, but we need to keep up the fight for bigger cuts. And we need to know whom we can count on to be with us. Did your senators stand up to Lockheed Martin, or did they support billions for a boondoggle? Click here to find out and tell them how you feel about their votes.

We can keep this moving in the right direction and start creating a budget that reflects our real priorities. Our representatives in Washington, DC who stand up for smart spending need to know we have their backs when they buck the powerful weapons lobbies. And the ones who keep us on the path toward waste need to know there will be consequences for their votes. Click here to let them know you are watching.