Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to curb spending on the U.S. Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, the Raptor. And hold on, before you say this proves the Obama administration is soft on defense, remember that President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to curtail the Raptor program, too.

The Raptor is a symbol of all that's wrong with how the U.S. buys weapons. The Raptor was conceived in the mid-1980s as an ideal jet to parry the military of the Soviet Union. It is a superior jet stealthy, nimble and lethal. But by the time the first Raptor contract was awarded 18 years ago, the Soviet Union had collapsed and U.S. defense needs were changing rapidly. The Raptor, though, had a life of its own because key members of Congress saw it as a local jobs program.

The U.S. has spent $60 billion to $65 billion on the Raptor, including research, development, testing and engineering costs, says Barry Watts, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.

The Air Force has bought 183 of the fighters at a cost of $150 million each. Gates proposes that the U.S. buy just four more, for a total of 187. That's 60 fewer than the Air Force earlier said it needs but eight more than the Bush administration proposed to buy in 2005 when it sought to put the brakes on the program.

Gates wants to hike purchases of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is not quite as technically advanced as the Raptor but is considerably cheaper. The U.S. would buy 513 F-35s over five years and eventually have a fleet of 2,443.

This makes sense, but some critics are howling that it would put the nation at risk. The Raptor's termination "inevitably will call U.S. air supremacy . . . into question," American Enterprise Institute scholars Thomas Donnelly and Gary Schmitt wrote in the Wall Street Journal. More significantly, the Raptor has powerful political support. Congressmen from Georgia, Texas, Washington and Connecticut where the Raptor accounts for tens of thousands of jobs are mobilizing to save it.

And you wonder why Congress is so good at running budget deficits, whether there's a Republican or a Democrat in the White House.

"Every defense dollar spent to over-insure against a remote or diminishing risk . . . is a dollar not available" to spend on other priorities, Gates said recently. That includes other defense priorities.

Congress has to make a sober assessment of weapons systems. They can't be considered first and foremost as jobs-preservation programs.

The Obama administration will face a battle against powerful political and industrial constituencies that seek to protect the status quo. On the Raptor, it is right.

The jet has powerful political support.