That Whole F-35 Thing

Okay, help me out here people. What's going on? It looks like the KPMG audit is forcing the harpercon regime to "rethink" its commitment to the F-35 fighter. Seems, just like everybody said, that this was really a $40 billion (plus) expenditure and not the $15 billion it was first touted as.

So what? So what if it's $40 billion? Why is that supposed to matter to the harpercons? (This is where I need your help in explaining things to me.) If bloggers and the Parliamentary Budget Officer and others, knew this, presumably the government and its advisers knew this. Right? And, aren't there supposed to be spin-off benefits for Canada? Aren't we (as purchasers) supposed to get construction and maintenance jobs out of it?

You would think that after the harpercons blatantly lied to Parliament, slandered the critics of the program as hating the troops, and said over and over again that it was this plane or no plane, that they wouldn't then retreat because another audit of the project said it was as expensive as a lot of other people were saying it was going to be.

I mean, what did the harpercons think when the PBO was saying the project would cost over $30 billion? Did they honestly think he was wrong and that he was just being a big, mean poopy-head who was trying to rain on their parade? Especially since they themselves knew he was right???

That's the thing that I don't get. THEY KNEW ALL ALONG! Why else hide the true costs from Parliament? They themselves said that not getting this plane would set us back by years and years and a delay like that would be irresponsible. Then, when it's no longer possible to deny the project's true costs (which they must have known about) they themselves decide to start all over again.

I can think of a few possibilities; None of them say anything good about this regime:

• They really believed that if you have the plane for a different number of years from what other people are talking about, that the price genuinely changes.
• They really believed that fuel, maintenance, spare parts and everything else that ever went into the pricing of other fighter jet purchases were "extras" from the ticket price and not worth worrying about. (Even though they amounted to something like $20 billion.) [!]
• They really thought that if they closed their eyes and thought about other things, that the whole thing would blow over.
• They really believed that nobody would ever find out about the actual price tag.
• Peter MacKay and stephen harper like to run-off at the mouth and they're fucking idiots.

Perhaps, as with most manifestations of right-wing stupidity, it's best not to try to understand. To paraphrase Pee-Wee Herman: "There's things about right-wingers you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand."