New York ( CNN ) -- In a time of voter anger at unsustainable government spending and Washington hypocrisy , here 's a story that should get your blood up . Last week , the House of Representatives considered eliminating a nearly half-billion dollar earmark that was snuck into a defense authorization bill . But members of both parties voted to keep the corporate pork in the bill -- despite a supposed moratorium on earmarks and despite that the Pentagon has repeatedly said it does n't want the money . Only in Washington would bureaucracy be force-fed a project it does n't want or need . But so far , we have n't seen this contempt for taxpayer dollars make its way to protest signs or talk radio driven talking points . That 's because President Obama opposes the earmark and the Republican congressional leadership voted for it . This does n't fit neatly into the hyperpartisan narrative of screaming about socialism -- in which Republicans bewail overspending by Democrats -- but it 's a perfect illustration of how deep the dysfunction is in Washington . At issue is the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter platform , a corporate subsidized boondoggle that has cost taxpayers $ 1.2 billion in earmarks since 2004 . It is estimated to cost at least $ 2.9 billion more until its completion . Defenders argue that paying GE and Rolls Royce to develop a second engine for Air Force fighters will stimulate competition in the defense industry and bring down costs in the long run while protecting jobs in the short run . Critics point out that crony capitalism ca n't create a true free market in the defense industry -- it 's the equivalent of diet hucksters who claim you can eat yourself fitter . This is about money : pork barrel politics hiding under the noble banner of national defense . Here 's how the sordid story unfolded : . An anonymous earmark was added to the defense authorization bill , requesting $ 485 million in new funds for the alternate engine program , despite a much-ballyhooed moratorium on earmarks going to for-profit entities ( agreed to by Democrats ) , and a total ban on earmark requests agreed to by Republicans for fiscal year 2011 . In reaction , a small bipartisan group of members of Congress -- led by Democrat Chellie Pingree of Maine and Republican Tom Rooney of Florida , joined by Democrat John Larson of Connecticut and Republican Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia -- proposed an amendment to strip the bill of the ugly anonymous earmark . Their principled stand went down to defeat by a vote of 193 to 231 . It 's no surprise that in a recession , the congressional representatives of Ohio and Indiana would vote to keep the earmark subsidy in the bill , including the normally stalwart fiscal conservative Mike Pence of Indiana . Those states are benefiting most from the development of the engines in terms of jobs on the ground . What 's more surprising is why so many of their colleagues would climb on this pork-barrel bandwagon , including the Republican congressional leadership led by John Boehner and Eric Cantor , who are trying to build the midterm election campaign around a promise to restore fiscal discipline . That selling job that should be even tougher since a majority of Democrats voted to kill the alternate engine and a majority of Republicans voted to keep it going . `` This was the first big earmark test for 2010 , and Congress failed , '' said Thomas A. Schatz , the President of Citizens Against Government Waste , which has been a steadfast critic of the alternate engine and recently released a detailed report on the subject . `` Neither party comes out looking good , but Republicans in particular missed a golden opportunity to show that they are really serious about getting government spending under control . '' The next chance to stop the half-billion dollar alternate engine earmark is the Senate , when it takes up the defense authorization bill later this month . But even success there from genuine fiscal conservatives such as John McCain could be undone when the bill goes to conference -- it 's the Washington way . The final stop would be a presidential veto , which President Obama has promised , under advice from Defense Secretary Gates . A half century ago , Republican President Eisenhower warned about the influence of the military-industrial complex . The former five-star general crusaded against government waste , especially in the military , because he knew that a figure with lesser credibility could be attacked as being `` soft on communism '' for proposing responsible cuts from the Pentagon budget during the Cold War . We are at war today on two fronts , even as we face down a fiscal crisis and escalating deficits and debt . We owe it to our troops to see that every dollar allocated to the military is spent where they need it , not where congressional appropriators want it . And if fiscal conservative protesters can not marshal their energy to oppose this half-billion dollar boondoggle , then it is not just Congress ' hypocrisy they should be angry at -- it is their own . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John P. Avlon .
GOP defeated a bid to kill a defense spending project that GOP says it does n't need . Eisenhower says Pentagon critics of government spending voted for at least $ 2.9 billion project . He says this was a clear-cut case of a way to cut the budget deficit . Avlon asks how GOP can run on platform of cutting spending while supporting this project .