Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss voted against supporting the troops before they voted for it.

Georgia’s two Republican senators issued a news release over the weekend about a $636 billion defense spending bill the Senate passed Friday night.

“(W)e have the best trained, most professional, most effective, and best led military in the world and they deserve our unfailing support,” Chambliss said. “That is why I voted in favor of this bill.”

“While I do not agree with everything in this bill, this funding is critical to ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the resources they need to protect our homeland and continue the fight for freedom around the world,” Isakson said.

In reality, Republicans tried to slow down the health care debate by attempting to block the bill. If it had not passed by midnight Friday, the Pentagon might have gone broke and shut down. When those efforts failed, they switched sides on the final vote, which is considered bad form in parliamentary etiquette.

The bill kills funding for the F-22, a Marietta-made fighter jet that the Pentagon no longer wants, although Isakson and Chambliss said it can still be sold to allies overseas. The two senators highlighted a laundry list of other projects for Georgia, including $1.5 million for something called “nanophotonic biosensor detection of bioagents and pathogens” at the University of Georgia.

Remember, these are critical needs. It’s only pork if it’s for somebody else.

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