Ground this idea: A legislative effort to save the 911th is absurd
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When the Post-Gazette editorialized Tuesday about the threat of closure to the 911th Airlift Wing, we suggested that the best way to save the base was to make an argument on the military merits of keeping it open. Instead, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and fellow local congressmen have pulled rank on the generals in a sky-high display of parochialism.
Mr. Murphy has introduced a bill that would prohibit the secretary of the Air Force from planning or executing the permanent relocation from the base of any C-130 aircraft -- the type that the Air Force flies here. It further stipulates that the number of C-130s in Pittsburgh must be equal to or exceed the number at the base last October.
When Congress gets into the business of telling the Air Force how many planes it needs at a given base, absurdity has reached a new low in Washington. Mr. Murphy and fellow co-sponsors Jason Altmire, D-McCandless; Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills; and Mark Critz, D-Johnstown, are merely pandering. Imagine if every congressman with a threatened military base introduced such a bill.
The U.S. defense budget needs to be cut. If the 911th is to be saved, it needs more realistic and sensible action than this.
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
