The vote on Tuesday in the Senate to strip funding for extra F-22 fighters is a huge step in the fight for sanity in defense budgeting. The vote itself ended up being pretty one-sided, 58-40, but considering that its the first time in recent memory (certainly the last eight years) that a major military program has been cut over the objection of a large and influential group. This time Gates' lobbying over the last several weeks combined with Obama's threat to veto the entire bill if the funding was included were successful in getting the money removed.
However, as exciting as it is to have rationality coming back into play as a driver for defense budgeting is great, but this should only be the beginning. Now that the remarkably potent combination of Obama and Gates have managed this, future reforms seem not only desirable but actually possible. Each step is going to be difficult as defense contractors, their armies of lobbyists and their allies on the Hill line up to prevent cuts, but with a popular President and an extraordinarily skilled and respected SecDef, reform finally has a fighting chance. Combine that with the release of the QDR early in 2010 and the next 8-10 months are looking like they may fundamentally reshape how the military decides what it needs and how it goes about getting it. It's about time.
