The Obama administration has consistently cited budgetary cost factors in defending its controversial plan to stop production of the F-22, but the plan comes with extraordinary political costs as well.

Naturally, the Pentagon’s prime contractors will be the first to feel the pain of the budget axe. But further down the contracting food chain, UNION WORKERS across the nation will bear the brunt of the program’s demise. These are some of the same union workers that helped propel Obama into office last November.   

Steelworkers in BLUE states will be hurt. Manufacturers in BLUE states will be shuttered. The very core of the Obama constituency will end up paying the price. And those union voters may not be there to back Obama again if their jobs are sacrificed to federal budget cuts. 

We in Washington all know that Lockheed was given a gag order on F-22.  Rumor has it that Lockheed was told to back down on the F-22 or the F-35 would be cancelled as well. Many subcontractors and unions are, of course, accustomed to working with the Congress and the Administration, but they have all come to rely on Lockheed to do the heavy lifting. So, it is only now that the unions are starting to realize that they, too, will be hurt by the cessation of F-22 orders. 

In factories across the nation, steelworkers, machinists and autoworkers will know that it is the Obama Administration’s refusal to order more F-22s that is costing them their jobs. For Obama, the political consequences of cutting the F-22 may not be truly felt until he again calls out to his union base and that base fails to answer.