Boin-ney, did I say it right?

[Minimalist]

[KevinM1]

[The Grand Nudger]

Im right there with you Min, but just to pick out the line in that article about the Bradley....what was left out, is that the price increase was due to increased demands on the platforms added to the mandate.  We basically said "build x",...then a bit later "and add y"...then a bit later "and add z".  Districts milking a project for all it was worth.  The DoD has no -choice- but to comply with those demands.  That's not to say that they don't have folks planted that are friendly to the scheme, but the scheme is handed down in a -completely- lawful mandate and doesn;t rely on those friendly brass. They're grease on the wheels, not the wheels.

Ultimately, from the soldiers end, we appreciate having x, and y, and z. X y and z is what made it a badass ifv, albeit an expensive ifv. We pay too much, it's shady how it gets that way, and we don't always get whats claimed. That's when further cash gets spent to make it actually perform, on a battlefield. It;s all a giant shit sandwich, but congress are demonstrably plating that shit up. Passing the buck, and convincing the american people to pass the buck, is how they get away with it.

[Ryantology]

Vermont

Median income: $52,977
Poverty rate: 11.2%
Child poverty rate: 15%
Commonwealth Fund overall healthcare ranking: 1

Florida
Median income: $44,250
Poverty rate: 16.5%
Child poverty rate: 24%
Commonwealth Fund overall healthcare ranking: 37

Texas
Median income: $53,105
Poverty rate: 18%
Child poverty rate: 25%
Commonwealth Fund overall healthcare ranking: 40

Of course, those are two outlier red states you mentioned; most red states are abysmal in pretty much every relevant category.

[Minimalist]

[The Grand Nudger]

I suppose linking the rebuttal offered wouldn't serve the point very well?  The army acknowledged moving the cans.....to make the bradley safer to crews, the entire point.  There are places on a bradley that you just don't want anything to be.  It's armor isn't it's strong point..it can;t take a hit from an enemy tank -anywhere-, and it has to carry the ammo regardless of how dangerous it is when that ammo gets hit.  Predictably, they remained accusations, the plan moved ahead as per congressional mandate. Now, that doesn't mean that there wasn't some behind the scenes nonsense going on, people padding their friends pockets, but the bit about ammo cans.....meh. That got fixated on because of their failure to make anything else stick. You're referring here, to politicians making career convenient allegations to a crowd. We don't carry those cans in the vehicle -at all- anymore. It's the tow missile storage that keeps you up at night, now. They're behind you against the walls and under you on the bench. I doubt it would have passed any of those tests had it carried the armament as it does now without the up-armor mods.

In what way would an audit find wrongdoing in any of this? You're talking about a weapon not living up to it's hype. The first bradleys definitely didn't live up to the hype (they still outperformed what they replaced). They exceeded it, in the end. No one expected it to perform like it has.

[KevinM1]

Vermont

Median income: $52,977
Poverty rate: 11.2%
Child poverty rate: 15%
Commonwealth Fund overall healthcare ranking: 1

Florida
Median income: $44,250
Poverty rate: 16.5%
Child poverty rate: 24%
Commonwealth Fund overall healthcare ranking: 37

Texas
Median income: $53,105
Poverty rate: 18%
Child poverty rate: 25%
Commonwealth Fund overall healthcare ranking: 40

Of course, those are two outlier red states you mentioned; most red states are abysmal in pretty much every relevant category.

And they rely on Federal money provided largely by the more successful blue states in order to survive.

[Minimalist]

I'm sure they had an excuse.  You know what they say about excuses?

[Wyrd of Gawd]

[Cecelia]

Yeah, I can't imagine why someone would follow a socialist jew who wants to take care of the poor.

I guess it's not really fair though to compare Bernie and Jesus. I mean he's a great guy, but he's no Bernie Sanders.