The first touts in this year’s boxing contest over continuing production of the C-17, which is assembled in Long Beach, have begun—Spring must be quickly approaching. In this election year, with the Democrats scared to enter the ring, and the Republicans trying to perfect an antispending/antigovernment right jab, the annual boxing match over the fate of the Boeing built C-17 heavy airlifter is about to get underway.

It was last April when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the U.S. Air Force didn’t want any more C-17s. Since about 5,000 people are employed by Boeing in Long Beach to assemble these advanced 4 engine heavy airlifters, that was not good news for the locals. For the next several months, there was a boxing match between the Obama Administration—we called them the Challengers, and just about everybody else in Washington—we called them the Defenders.

At www.OC180NEWS.com, we monitored the contest as the fate of the Long Beach workers, and others around the country, hung in the balance. As each side traded jabs with the other, it gradually became clear that the Challengers were not ready for a fight to the death. With so many jobs (also read “votes”) spread across so many congressional districts, a fight to the death is what the Challengers would have needed to kill production of everybody’s favorite airlifter. Eventually the Challengers were outlasted and the U.S. Government was slated to buy more of the big planes.

Today the Defense Department will begin again the process of rolling out their budget proposals. Last week, the process got off to an unofficial start as information about the proposals started leaking out.

It was hardly a surprise when the leaked information indicated that once again, the Defense Secretary wants to kill off production of the C-17. We expect the planes Defenders, who included such unlikely teammates as our very own right wing Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and left wing Democratic California Senator Barbara Boxer, to come out to defend the C-17 just as they did last year. But, that was then and this is now, and last year, nobody was up for reelection.

Last year the economy was in a free fall and no politicians had much of a stomach for doing anything which might have the slightest resemblance to killing jobs. Even though the economy is doing better than it was at this time last year, jobs are still hard to find. But, now there seems to be heightening political concern about deficit spending.

Protection of C-17 jobs can still be expected to gather plenty of political support, but we think the budget cutters will have a bit more taste for the fight then they did last year. We expect to see more support for ending C-17 production in congress but whether it is enough to actually end the program remains to be determined.
Ultimately, it will come down to how much political capital President Obama is willing to spend supporting his Defense Secretary

Last year, the Obama Administration was willing to go to the mat to end the F-22 advance fighter jet, but that was an easier fight because those planes, as fancy as they might be, are not used in today’s fights. The expensive F-22 was designed to go up against an advanced Russian fighter which, to say the least, is not our primary target these days. Unlike the C-17, which is seen everywhere from providing Haiti relief, to combat air drop missions, the F-22 was never used in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Challengers gave no ground last year on the F-22 and they eventually managed to end the program. Although they initially said they wanted to end C-17 production as well, they were never willing to go to the mat on it, so congress carried the day and the plane lived on.

We might expect the same result this year except there are some important differences. The Obama Administration and its friends on Capitol Hill are facing a worrisome election in November. It is probably a safe bet that the Republicans will mount a fierce anti-spending election campaign this year.

Both the budget process and the November election campaigns will be entering their final rounds at about the same time this summer and fall. It will be interesting to watch the budget cutting and C-17 defending Republicans use both techniques simultaneously as the election draws near. Stay tuned to www.OC180NEWS.com as the Challengers and Defenders for this year’s C-17 boxing match enter the ring.

If you would like to review our series from last year on the C-17 boxing match, click on The Boeing Company under West Orange County Features.