Damn I thought William Proxmire was dead. Proxmire never met a weapons system he liked. For an example he hated the F-14 Tomcat and listed all the problems he possibly could to show that it was a waste of money.
It was not a waste of money, just as the F-22 is not a waste of money.
The pols were also against the F-15 and the F-16.
They wagged their tongues how the venerable F-4 was good enough for future wars and we could just push the development of any new fighters into the "future."
They nearly killed the B-1 until Reagan pushed it through and even then they only built 100. It was a great nuclear capable bomber and has even been admirable in a conventional form. We should have built more of them.