On June 10, the House Appropriations Committee made clear the way many on Capitol Hill view national defense. By a raised-hands vote of 13 to 23, the Committee rejected an amendment from Congressman Jack Kingston—a Georgia Republican—to redirect $339 million from operation and maintenance funds, deemed excess, to retain 234 A-10 close air support aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory.

Even though the committee found $1.6 billion to increase the Obama Administration’s budget to buy hardware, it could not find a penny to retain one of the most extraordinarily effective weapons in the U.S. arsenal—and one of the cheapest to operate.

Retiring the A-10 will put the lives of American troops at more risk wherever we fight in the next decade. But at least 23 members of the House Appropriations Committee have a different priority.

And, most of them do not want you to know who they are. Except for Congressmen Rodney Frelinghuysen—a New Jersey Republican—and Indiana Democrat Peter Visclosky, no one spoke in opposition to the Kingston amendment. The conscious expedient of “voting” by simply raising hands meant that who voted how was not recorded.

Perhaps worse, 15 members of the committee—four more than needed for Kingston to prevail—did not bother to vote. Nor can we know who they are.

That the A-10’s support of our soldiers and Marines in combat has been extraordinarily effective is beyond debate. No one claims it is ineffective or too expensive to operate. No one disagrees with Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno, who testified to Congress the A-10 is the best we have for this vital mission.

The opponents say the A-10 has to go to save money. But the committee found plenty of money to add for big hardware items and the corporations that make them. The aircraft carrier George Washington got $789 million more than the Navy formally sought for its nuclear refueling and overhaul.

EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft—of which the Navy formally requested zero—got $975 million. Patriot missiles got an extra $200 million, unsought by the Army in its budget request.

And perhaps most offensive of all, the committee added $479 million for four unrequested F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, in order to rush them even faster into unjustified production. This is an aircraft that even many supporters concede has doubled in price and has under-flown its all-too-modest performance requirements.

The long list of these and other additions, both large and small, demonstrates a shortage of money was not a difficult problem to solve in this bill.

The committee’s vote also revealed indifference to what strengthens or weakens us in war. On the very morning of the Appropriations Committee meeting, The Washington Post and Fox News were describing a horrific event in Afghanistan. Five American soldiers had been killed in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan.

In the worst such incident in 12 years of war there, a B-1B bomber dropped weapons on our own troops. A horrible mistake, devastating also to the aircrew involved, the event made painfully noticeable the Air Force’s main rationale for dropping the A-10.