During the Sunday New York AM 970 radio broadcast of “The Cats Roundtable,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) slammed the Pentagon over the new state-of-the-art USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier.
Ernst said it is “unacceptable” for the aircraft carrier to be billions of dollars over budget and years past the target date.
“That’s exciting for the United States Navy to have a state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, but I have questions,” Ernst said to host John Catsimatidis.
She continued, “What we have seen with this particular aircraft carrier is that it is years beyond the target completion date, and it is billions of dollars over budget. And that is not doing the right thing for the American taxpayer. It doesn’t do us any good when it’s sitting in port continually going through upgrades without actually being out doing what it is supposed to do.”
Ernst went on to say the money could have been spent better elsewhere, like “needy programs within the Department of Defense.”
“Until that thing is out actually on mission doing what it needs to do by protecting the United States and our allies, I’m not comfortable with it,” she added.
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