Comments on: Why Doesn’t Anyone Seem to Care About the F136?

By: Not to Say, “First!” But… | Or | Cincinnati Finally Begins Coverage of the F136 Thing | The Cincinnati Man

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:55:28 +0000

[...] Post The Enquirer ran a story about GE’s up-in-the-air fighter engine. We got there first. Big ups to Hipp for being on top of it by like three weeks. Send him a beer or [...]

By: Hipp

Hipp — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:17:23 +0000

James, I sympathize a ton. I have a lot of friends who don’t know what they’ll do should the engine get cut.. I have a plan worked out already because I was on the chopping block for the layoffs last March but then my job was saved at the last minute. I would feel terrible for my co-workers.

I had figured for a while that the issue was pretty well known in the area, but I realized it’s just because we hear about it constantly at work. Whenever I mention it off hand to non-GE people they have no idea what I am talking about. I was sort of hoping someone would comment on here and prove me wrong.

By: Mike Hickerson

Mike Hickerson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:02:54 +0000

I had no idea – thanks for raising my awareness. Part of the (reason? problem?), I’m sure, is that Cincinnati’s most powerful Congressman, John Boehner, is vehemently opposed to earmarks for local projects:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/mar/16/john-boehner/rep-john-boehner-earmark-free/

It’s a political stance that I actually agree with, but it does have a cost to Cincinnati.

By: James

James — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:03:07 +0000

You are correct. It’s sad, in the middle of THIS economy with THIS state of job losses, that the local media outlets jump on top of this.

I only know about this, and its implications because I also work indirectly for GE as a contractor. If the F-136 program gets cut, I don’t have a nice layoff package.

So yes, I am also biased. But I am disappointed in how little the local media reports this. 800 GE layoffs, plus the additional layoffs of contractors = more unemployment = weaker local economy = more people in the pool looking for work = less people move here/more people leave here. I could go on.

We as a country need to stop fearing public spending. Making sure the spending is WISE and held accountable for sure, but with all the tea party stuff and anti-government sentiment, we NEED public spending now, yes, even if we need to borrow for now and pay it back later.