The Margin of Victory

By a 58-40 vote, the U.S. Senate voted today to remove funding for additional F-22 stealth fighters from a $680 billion defense bill. President Obama had threatened to veto the measure if it contained more money to sustain F-22 production.

Our latest column for Examiner.com looks at the impact of that decision. We're reminded that key weapons programs of the past often survived by narrow Congressional majorities, and become indispensible in combat (the B-17 and B-29 come to mind). In light of the F-22 vote, we can only hope that today's legislative majority (19 votes) doesn't provide a future margin of defeat.