Instead of providing health care

or affordable college education, the rightwingnuts have continually shoveled money into more and bigger military projects. The largest 'money pit' is the F-35 fighter jet, at OVER a TRILLION dollars, funded by Repub pork barrel 'hogs at the trough'. Now, we find out more about it, as those who've seen it in action, claim it's a step BACK from existing fighters.

http://fortune.com/2015/08/14/f-35-joint-strike-fighter/
The F-35 fighter jet will find itself outmaneuvered, outgunned, out of range, and visible to enemy sensors, says a new report by think tank National Security Network. 40-page report details what NSN’s analysts see as the F-35’s major shortcomings: Its internal payload bay is too small to be effective in modern air-to-air engagements; its relatively short operating range will limit its capability in geographically large areas (like the increasingly important Asia-Pacific region), and; it relies too much on stealth technology that will grow increasingly obsolete as air defenses improve over time.The report also piles atop recent criticism that the F-35 is less maneuverable than some of the previous generations it is meant to replace, placing it at a disadvantage in air-to-air combat. In late June, defense blog War is Boring unearthed an unclassified five-page brief written by an F-35 test pilot after simulated air-to-air—or “dogfighting”—trials pitting an F-35 against a 1980s vintage F-16D. That brief described a lopsided competition in which the F-16 consistently outmaneuvered its newer, stealthier counterpart. The F-35 could neither effectively attack its more agile adversary, nor could it escape when the F-16 took to the offensive.

Yup, sounds like a GREAT use of a trillion dollars. Sorta like the Iraq War, as the Pubs shovel our tax dollars down a giant money pit, in their 'home districts'.