The power of the purse is Congress's most effective weapon, and the House last week wielded it like a double-bladed sword. Although the House approved George Bush's request for $291 billion in total military spending next year, its version of the 1992 defense-spending bill axed the President's pet B-2 Stealth bomber program and drastically cut funding for his Strategic Defense Initiative antiballistic-missile project.
The Administration had requested four new B-2s as part of its goal of acquiring 75 of the bombers by the end of the century; the House action would halt production at the 15 aircraft previously authorized. In cutting...
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