I've been running the numbers on the US congressional budget through my head, they currently have a national debt of 15 trillion dollars, which is over 100% of its GDP; they're currently running up a deficit of 1.5 trillion dollars a year and even with all the new cuts, will have a deficit of nearly 1 trillion a year. The point I'm trying to make is that there is still a lot more budget cutting to be done and the congressional budget only really has 3 options to cut - Defence, social security and Education.
If jolly ol' Barack Obama wins the white house next year (which is the most likely outcome), it's pretty obvious what will and will not be in the firing line for getting all that debt paid off...defence will once again be in the sights and what happened to be the cost of buying and servicing all 3 variants of the F35 again? 1.5 trillion dollars! Essentially what I'm saying is that, in the eyes of Obama and his democrat friends, there is the potential for the DoD to save a lot of money from the F35 programme.
In my humble opinion, I would stand by for a complete cancellation of the B and a reduced order of the other 2 variants, which will mean increased prices, which will mean reduced orders etc.
As always I'm open to an economist pointing out the flaws in my argument but unfortunately, I think the bulk of it is correct.
Much love, the Bastard