Zero-Sum Game
"This decision has increasingly become a zero-sum game. Within a fixed Air Force and overall Defense Department budget, our challenge is to decide among many competing needs. Buying more F-22s means doing less of something else."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, explaining why they decided to abandon the requirement for an additional 60 F-22s to reach a moderate-risk 243 aircraft vs. the 187 Raptors the service now expects to field, Washington Post op-ed, April 13, 2009.

"Ready, Fire, Aim"
"The decision to end production of the C-17 before the Air Force's study [DOD's mobility capabilities study] comes out later this summer is premature and an example of ready, fire, aim."
—Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), complaining about the weapons systems cuts announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in an April 6 statement.