Downing F-35 engine

The House vote to kill an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will produce small savings when compared with the flood of red ink inundating Washington, yet it symbolizes something important. A bipartisan coalition agreed to cut spending for a needless and costly defense program. In the case of Republicans, they bucked leadership. In the case of all lawmakers voting to end the program, they took the risk that defense contracts in their own districts could later be targeted.

Most every district in the country has some piece of the massive defense industry pie and benefits from the jobs it creates. Lawmakers counting on support for their piece of that pie have traditionally not seen it in their self-interest to question someone else's slice. And so the pie just grows bigger, regardless of whether the ingredients meet the nutritional needs of national defense.

Then there is the blurring of patriotism and weapons development. How can a legislator carry out his patriotic duty if he does not support the weapons used for national defense? Republicans are particularly sensitive about receiving the label of soft on defense.

That's how a program such as the F-35 alternative engine has managed to survive, even though the Pentagon has said it doesn't need it and the last two administrations, one led by a Republican and the next by a Democrat, have sought to cut it.

The logic behind the engine, under development by General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce, is that it would provide competition for Connecticut-based engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. The Pentagon, however, did not buy into the theory of future savings through competition and could not afford up-front costs. Killing the engine cuts $450 million from the budget and will save up to $3 billion over the next few years.

The Senate could fight to restore funding, but that now appears a long shot.

Despite his budget-cutting rhetoric, House Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, wanted to keep the program that provided 1,000 jobs in his home state. All nine of the freshman Republicans from Ohio and Indiana, where a plant is also located, voted against killing the project.

But 47 of the 87 new Republican members, many elected with tea party movement support, did break ranks with Speaker Boehner. All told, 110 GOP lawmakers and 123 Democrats joined forces to approve the amendment by a vote of 233-198.

Representing nearly 20 percent of spending, the nation cannot exempt defense from any serious deficit reduction debate. Congress must distinguish sound weapons programs and policies from wasteful ones. Perhaps with the F-35 vote that has begun.