The American Way: When You Can't Swindle, Bitch

When Boeing discovered that it couldn’t swindle its way into receiving the Air Force’s $100 billion contract to build the Air Force a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers, Boeing then offered a plane clearly deficient in size and capacity (but not price) to the Airbus-based plane that Northrop-Grumman-EADS tendered in bidding that became open to that company only after Boeing’s efforts to suborn Air Force officials withered under public scrutiny and punishment.

Now Boeing, its unions and Washington State members of Congress squawk with surprise that Air Force generals could see that the Airbus ship offers a better deal to the service and to U.S. taxpayers.

Though Northrop-Grumman-EADS will assemble the tankers in a plant yet to be built in Mobile, AL, the howls of surprise come wrapped in Old Glory, with plaints that a U.S. military plane should be built in the U.S. and not in perfidious France.

Boeing never has voiced such qualms about civilian airliners. Big chunks of Boeing’s airliners are built overseas by foreign companies, then airlifted to the U.S. for assembly here.

Northrop-Grumman-EADS is only flying the same construction route Boeing pioneered. No wonder Boeing feels euchred.

Worst of all are the hero speeches still echoing in Congress about the need to investigate the Air Force’s decision–speeches that ignore that the contract, finally, was up for bid, that there were two bidders and one of them won. What’s the surprise here, except to raise false clamor?

Boeing yelps that Airbus is subsidized. Well, Boeing is subsidized. It hardly pays any taxes in Washington and Kansas, where it assembles planes, it hardly pays any federal taxes, it gets exceedingly cheap loans, pollutes hell out of the land and streams with hardly an official soul offering a mew, and until lately was subsidized by getting favorable treatment on winning contracts.

For me it would be pleasant if someday the manufacturers who hymn most loudly about the virtues of capitalism and free trade might get brave enough to practice same.