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- <text id=91TT0060>
- <title>
- Jan. 14, 1991: American Notes:The Navy
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Jan. 14, 1991 Breast Cancer
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 21
- American Notes
- THE NAVY
- Just Bill The Taxpayer
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The Navy's A-12 Avenger attack-bomber development has been
- so mismanaged that three high-ranking uniformed officers and
- a top Defense Department official were forced out of their jobs
- or censured. One problem has been the Pentagon's familiar habit
- of permitting huge overruns on contracts. A layman might see
- an easy solution: the contractors should either live up to
- their commitments or lose the work. But that is not the
- military way.
- </p>
- <p> Last week top Navy officials and the two Avenger
- contractors, General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas, agreed to
- ask taxpayers to pick up a big share of the excessive costs,
- which may be up to $4 billion. If Defense Secretary Dick Cheney
- approves the plan, Congress will be asked to vote the funds.
- But there may be serious resistance on Capitol Hill. "A bailout
- at taxpayers' expense," says House Armed Services Committee
- member Andy Ireland, "is unconscionable."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-