| First off, I think the money should have stayed in country but let me do a slight bit of defending here:
First I do not ever remember the government, except perhaps in the 80's say buy America.
Secondly Airbus offered us a better product than what Boeing was going to sale us. More fuel storage space and better overall technology, cost a little more but I would rather have a better product in defense of this nation than a cheaper one for the sake of us first.
Last there is still alot of hard feelings and pissed off people who got tired of Boeing grifting the government with overpriced leases of there planes(the old refuelers were leased, not owned). In fact Boeings original offer for new refuelers were intentionally underpriced to get a deal and when the GAO looked into it they found out it would have cost us 30 million more per plane than what Boeing said it would be. |