December 23, 2016
I Get It...Do You?
In the car business we would
call it "scratching the record."
What that means is that if we
had a customer who would get set on one thing or another in the purchasing of a
vehicle, we would use SOMETHING to shake things up...or to 'scratch the record.'
For those of us who actually
used vinyl albums, you know that if you bump the turntable or mess with the
cartridge arm, that would make a scratching noise that would get your mind off
of your current fixation and move your attention to another area.
President Trump is scratching
the record.
Look at his Cabinet picks.
Look at his tweets.
The President is trying...and
succeeding I might add, to shake things up in Washington DC, the Media and most importantly, the world.
We have a President that is
confident, and knows he will take A LOT of flak for not 'being one of the good
ole boys.' However, he does what he feels is the right thing to do.
The thought here is that if
you shake things up, then you have a better chance to put them back together
the way you want.
Brilliant and the world
doesn't get it.
Donald Trump’s Tweet Sets Up Jet Dogfight
President-elect suggests a Boeing plane could be used as substitute for Lockheed’s F-35 combat jet
Doug Cameron and
Damian Paletta
Updated Dec. 22,
2016 7:09 p.m. ET
“Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F/A-18 Super Hornet!” he said in a tweet, referring to a Boeing plane that has long been used by the Navy and some overseas allies.
The Pentagon plans to acquire more than 2,400 of the F-35 jets to replace much of its combat fleet in what is by far its costliest program, and Mr. Trump has singled it out for criticism after a legacy of delays and design problems.
It is unusual for a president or a president-elect to publicly negotiate government procurement spending on weapons programs. Mr. Trump’s approach of negotiating via Twitter has shaken defense contractors and the complex defense bidding and procurement process. He has said he sees it as his job to try to save taxpayers money, but defense experts have said he is tackling a process that can’t be orchestrated in 140-character social media posts.
Daniel Gordon, who worked on government procurement issues for the Government Accountability Office for 17 years before becoming President Barack Obama’s administrator for federal procurement policy, said Mr. Trump cannot award government contracts without going through the formal competition and bidding process.
“The government would be violating the law to award a contract to Boeing without a competition [bidding process] unless they go through exceptions to the normal legal requirements for competition,” Mr. Gordon said, adding that this process would likely not qualify for any of the exceptions.
Pentagon officials have long said the two planes served very different roles, with the F-35 providing more radar-evading features and serving as an airborne command post. Variants of the F/A-18 are used as attack jets and to provide electronic countermeasures to protect U.S. forces.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the military head of the F-35 program, said this week that the capabilities of the F-35 couldn’t be diluted.
Lockheed shares fell 2% in after-hours trade, with Boeing up around 0.7%. The F-35 accounts for more than 20% of Lockheed’s annual sales. Mr. Trump met the chief executives of both companies on Wednesday.
The two jets have faced off to win contracts for overseas governments, with the F-35 prevailing in most of them.
However, Canada last month said it would order the Boeing jets after the government dropped plans launched by the previous administration to buy the F-35. The Lockheed plane will still be considered in a future contest to acquire more jets.
Boeing has long pressed the Navy to buy more F/A-18s.
“We have committed to working with the president-elect and his administration to provide the best capability, deliverability and affordability across all Boeing products and services to meet our national security needs,” the company said in a statement.
Boeing declined to comment on whether Mr. Trump had raised his request about the F/A-18 at his Wednesday meeting with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
Lockheed Martin declined to comment and Pentagon officials didn’t immediately respond to a request
The F-35 entered service with the Marine Corp. in 2015 and with the Air Force earlier this year.
The Pentagon said the average cost of the model used by the Air Force has fallen to $102 million, though some budget watchdogs said this excludes some expenses such as fixing past design problems. Defense analysts estimate the F/A-18 costs $70 million to $80 million.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com and Damian Paletta at damian.paletta@wsj.com
So now, the President tweets that the costs for the F35 are out of control, which they are. He is also aware that the F35 has some serious detractors, that the plane is slow, cant carry a decent weapons load and has limited fuel range...
So President Trump tweets that he is asking Boeing to give a cost breakdown of the F/A-18 Super Hornet versus the F35 Lightning.
The MSM goes bonkers.
Again the same people start slathering over Trumps inability to get along so to speak.
What they don't understand is
that President Trump isn't out to get along. He could care less about getting
along. He is interested in winning.
The President took Boeing to
the woodshed in a tweet about Air Force One the other day, remember that?
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One
for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion.
Cancel order!
He tweeted that a new Air
Force One program will cost 4 billion dollars, Too much, he said and to cancel
the deal.
Then this happened;
After meeting with Trump, Boeing CEO says Air Force One won't cost $4 billion
It took a matter of hours for Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg to get on the phone with the president-elect and smooth things over.
On Wednesday, two weeks after the kerfuffle, he made his way south to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to meet face to face.
Trump had slapped a $4 billion price tag on the program to build two more of the next generation of planes and he had pronounced it a waste.
Analysts said that while the Air Force had budgeted $2.7 billion for the Air Force One program, the costs would likely grow to about $4 billion after the planes were actually manufactured. The planes are expected to be operational by the mid-2020s.
The tweet shook the political and defense contracting worlds, as Trump challenged the aviation giant and threatened to pull a contract responsible for hundreds of American jobs.
But after his meeting with Trump on Wednesday, Muilenburg faced the media, hat in hand, so to speak.
"We're all focused on the same thing here, we're going to make sure that we give our warfighters the best capability in the world and that we do it in a way that is affordable for our taxpayers," Muilenburg said. "And his business head set around that is excellent. It was a terrific conversation. Got a lot of respect for him. He's a good man. And he's doing the right thing.
As for that $4 billion price tag, Muilenburg promised taxpayers would get a break - though by the time the contract is finished and the planes are flying, Trump is not likely to be still in office.
"We're going to get it done for less than that, and we're committed to working together to make sure that happens," he said. "And I was able to give the president-elect my personal commitment on behalf of the Boeing Company."
He scratched Boeing's
record...and Boeing responded.
Lockheed Martin should take
notice, as should Huntington Ingalls, who is building the extremely expensive
and ridiculously delayed aircraft carrier Gerald R Ford.
To the Defense Industrial
Complex...the days of screwing everyone over because you can...are numbered.
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Shalom
Jerry
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