Defense spending

President Obama is trying to cut spending the Defense Department does not want, but he is running into congressional opposition.

His $3.73 trillion proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year calls for $78 billion in cuts to Pentagon spending over five years, including appropriation for an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Striker Fighter aircraft. President Obama, and before him President George W. Bush, has tried to eliminate the expenditures but Congress has maintained the $465 million-a-year funding for development of the engine by General Electric and Rolls Royce.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Rob Portman are backers of the second engine. Both are from Ohio where General Electric has 1,000 people working on the engine. House Republicans have called for slashing $100 billion from federal spending, while Sen. Portman supports a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget. Yet this is one project they want to keep despite the judgment of defense leaders who say it is unnecessary.

Rep. Boehner and Sen. Portman believe the second engine will ultimately lead to lower costs by generating competition with the primary engine developer Pratt and Whitney in the future.

General Electric has spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress. Sen. Portman received more than $59,000 in the 2010 elections while the company and subsidiaries spent $39 million lobbying Congress last year. Pratt and Whitney's parent company, United Technologies, also spent $14.5 million to counter GE advertising.

Members of Congress are concerned with protecting jobs in their home districts. The savings from eliminating the alternative engine is part of a plan by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to slow the growth of military spending and divert savings to other programs and manpower needs. Congress should listen to the administration and Mr. Gates who says the alternative engine program is a "waste of money."