President Obama's first budget, unveiled Monday, doesn't bear good news for Chicago-based Boeing.
The C-17 transport plane program is again on the chopping block, even as defense spending balloons to a record $708 billion under the president's proposal.
The Pentagon halted production of the C-17 four years ago because it had acquired the 180 it originally requested, but more continue to be made.
"Yet every year since, congress has provided unrequested money for more C-17s the Pentagon doesn't want or need. It's waste pure and simple," Obama said.
A senator in Missouri, where the planes are made by roughly 2,000 employees, blasted the president's move.
"I hope congress can exercise some common sense on the budget and stop this from spending this country into a hole,” Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond said.
Kit said that while the White House and the Pentagon may not want the planes, the overseas sales of the aircraft will keep the C-17 "alive for another year."
The news comes at a particularly poor time for Boeing, which is dealing with issues with new airplane programs, potential obsolescence of existing programs, military aircraft based on commercial jets and labor.
