>If that argument actually carried any weight, then ULA wouldn't exist, but Martin, McDonnel Douglas Aerospace, and GD Convair would.
Times have changed. I think Congress may have seen the error of its ways on this one.
Times have changed. I think Congress may have seen the error of its ways on this one.
Individual congresspeople might see why a past decision did or did not work out well in the long run. That's very different from seeing whether the same decision is politically expedient in the present moment. Nor does it necessarily imply that Congress as a whole is even capable of forming stable memories that can reliably retain that sort of knowledge.
Either that or Congress realized they can't sweep under the rug how much taxpayer money they could be saving.