Word: sst
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...SST's critics had revived all of the specters of environmental damage that a fleet of SSTs might inflict, including a frightening and seemingly exaggerated new emphasis on the increased hazards of skin cancer...
...nation's cities decaying, government at all levels screaming for financial aid, and welfare costs soaring, why should federal funds be used to help a relatively small number of passengers reach London and Paris a little faster? With the British, French and Russians already marketing a possibly uneconomical SST and worrying about selling it, why should the U.S. taxpayer be asked to join the gamble? On the other hand, if the plane was as surefire a moneymaker as its backers claimed, why not let free enterprise take the risk and reap the profits...
Accountable. Those were the arguments as House leaders of both parties urged their followers to vote what amounts to another $134 million to complete two SST prototypes, and thus to retain the possibility of salvaging something from the $864 million in tax money already invested. Both the galleries and the floor of the House were packed-a rarity in that chamber-as the SST debate neared its close. The strong feeling on both sides was audible. A guttural murmuring of distaste swept the floor as Democratic Floor Leader Hale Boggs harangued the House in support of the aircraft...
...motions that really shape a bill, without their constituents knowing their positions; only their final votes on bills as amended were made public. Now, the possibility of being held accountable to the voters back home is a reality-and a sobering one to judge by what ensued on the SST amendment...
Slowly, the members filed up the aisles to cast their votes, putting green ballots against the SST funding into a box beside Teller Yates, red votes to keep the plane alive into a box supervised by a pro-SST teller, California Democrat John McFall. The green line looked longer, and Yates, a normally gregarious man whose face was furrowed with fatigue from the long fight, broke into a grin. "Green cards here," he shouted happily, as he saw that victory was his. The vote was announced as 217 to 203 against the plane. In the mandatory final vote the funds...