Suitably Flip

Waste-Ted Money

Remember when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was outed by the blogging community as the King of Pork?  Well he's at it again:

Congressional champions of ballistic missile defense led by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, have won another funding battle to increase the number of Ground-Based Midcourse Interceptors, or GBIs deployed around Fort Greeley, Alaska.

This is the second year Stevens' subcommittee has added not only many millions for interceptors but also language expressing dissatisfaction with the Missile Defense Agency's direction.

It is yet unknown how many additional interceptors can be expected for this additional $200 million, but the bigger issue is that Sen. Stevens obviously doesn't see the big picture. 

Many nations, Russia and China most notably, hate the idea of a US missile defense system.  They have been somewhat reserved in their critiques because of the limited number of interceptors we are planning to deploy, that is, only enough to defeat a threat from Iran or North Korea.  Deploying additional missiles, especially without consideration of the non-trivial policy implications, is irresponsible. 

Additionally, Sen. Stevens' fervent pursuit of pork will force the Missile Defense Agency to build additional infrastructure (silos, command and control connectivity) and to increase the number of maintenance and operations personnel.  In the end, this move will likely cost taxpayers at least $500 million. 

Sweet.

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Waste-Ted Money

Remember when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was outed by the blogging community as the King of Pork?  Well he's at it again:

Congressional champions of ballistic missile defense led by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, have won another funding battle to increase the number of Ground-Based Midcourse Interceptors, or GBIs deployed around Fort Greeley, Alaska.

This is the second year Stevens' subcommittee has added not only many millions for interceptors but also language expressing dissatisfaction with the Missile Defense Agency's direction.

It is yet unknown how many additional interceptors can be expected for this additional $200 million, but the bigger issue is that Sen. Stevens obviously doesn't see the big picture. 

Many nations, Russia and China most notably, hate the idea of a US missile defense system.  They have been somewhat reserved in their critiques because of the limited number of interceptors we are planning to deploy, that is, only enough to defeat a threat from Iran or North Korea.  Deploying additional missiles, especially without consideration of the non-trivial policy implications, is irresponsible. 

Additionally, Sen. Stevens' fervent pursuit of pork will force the Missile Defense Agency to build additional infrastructure (silos, command and control connectivity) and to increase the number of maintenance and operations personnel.  In the end, this move will likely cost taxpayers at least $500 million. 

Sweet.