Larry Kalb as Replacement for Rick-no-public-option-Larsen

BELLINGHAM--Speaking to supporters in Bellingham over the Memorial Day weekend,  Second District Congressional candidate Larry Kalb (D) called out the incumbent, Rick Larsen, for another corporate giveaway to the military industrial complex. Last week, over the objections of the President and the Secretary of Defense,  Larsen voted to authorize funding to build a second and redundant engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. 

"This is pure pork," said Kalb. "It is a sad commentary on the control that military contractors have over Congress when the House votes for an engine the Pentagon clearly doesn't want. Defense Secretary Robert Gates considers the second engine program so wasteful that he is urging President Obama to veto the entire 2011 defense appropriation of $760 billion, if the second engine survives the House-Senate reconciliation committee."  

Larsen sits on the House Armed Services Committee, a coveted assignment because the defense industry contributes heavily to the election campaigns of those who sit on it. All members of the Armed Services Committee voted for the second engine, whereas fewer than half of House members not on the committee voted for it.  

Kalb stated: "This clearly shows that Larsen and other members of the Armed Services Committee are in bed with the war machine. Indeed, they are part of it. People in our district and across the country continue to suffer from the huge economic deficit caused by the unnecessary and unproductive wars we're mired in. Funding this 'bridge to nowhere' only makes that situation worse." 

Kalb strongly concurred with Secretary Gates' statement immediately following the vote: "One of the members of Congress, I'm told, said, 'Well, why is $3 billion for the alternative engine such a big deal when we've got a trillion-dollar deficit?' I would submit that one of the reasons we have a trillion-dollar deficit, is that kind of thinking." 

Kalb noted that American-based Pratt & Whitney builds the primary engine, while a consortium of British-based Rolls-Royce and General Electric builds the second and unnecessary one. "I am the Buy America candidate," said Kalb. “While GE is an American company, it has off-shored so much of its operations that it did not pay a single penny of federal income tax for 2009.” 

Kalb predicted that Larsen will vote for the "emergency" Defense Supplemental, which plows another $33 billion beyond that which was budgeted into, as Kalb described it, the “unwanted and unwise" build-up in Afghanistan. 

“Defense supplementals are like weapons systems for Larsen,” Kalb said. “He has voted for all of them in the past. He has also consistently opposed asking the Defense Department to draft even a flexible exit plan and withdrawal timetable from Afghanistan."

In contrast, Larry Kalb is one of over 60 Congressional candidates nationally that recently signed onto a statement reading: "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Americans over $1 trillion in direct costs, and over $3 trillion all together. At a time when our national debt exceeds $13 trillion, we can no longer afford these wars. It's time for Congress to reject any funding except to bring all our troops safely home and to help rebuild what we have destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan." 

"It's time to stop the bleeding," said Kalb. "I have yet to see a reason for staying in Afghanistan that is not absurd. It can't be to stop Al-Qaeda, because even the CIA admits there are fewer Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan than in several other countries. With our constant accidental killing of civilians, we are creating far more terrorists than we are killing. Our basic war model is deeply flawed. Terrorism must be treated as an international criminal matter, not as war. Homeland Security knows full well that the next terrorist attack on our soil is more apt to be hatched in the U.S. than in Afghanistan. The wars continue because corrupt corporations profit from the support of corrupt politicians who sacrifice American lives to prop up corrupt leaders abroad. Nothing will change until we change Congress. That's why I am running."