The government did what is has always done and will always do.
Line their own pockets first and take care of their richest supporters. Those who dissent are ultimately hounded and destroyed, unless there is a big enough public outcry of the government's treachery, greed, and stupidity. While the greatest amount of freedom is enjoyed here, it comes at a high price.

Moreover, the B-35 was a 4000-mile-target bomber with more range than the Convair B-36, a fact that was concealed by the AF writing-down its gross-weight by claiming no landing gear test! Jack Northrop said the airframe was designed for 300,000-lbs., but the AF refused to load test it. That the instability claims were bogus is given lie by statements by Charles Tucker, Northrop test pilot who flew the YB-49 (a YB-35 airframe with only powerplane changes) through all the AF stall tests AFTER the No. 2 YB-49 crashed when pilot Forbes pulled the wings off at 4.8Gs, after starting the stall too low for a gradual recovery. The engine and gear-box problems were the result of the AF failing to perform engine-prop compatibility tests before sending THEIR engines to Northrop to use... and the AF repeatedly refusing to do the standard compatibility tests to correct the resonance. United Aircraft owned both P&W and Hamilton Standard, both located in the same town in Connecticut. AAF top General Hap Arnold actually ordered production of 200 B-35 Wings in 1942,and did not order any Consolidated-Vultee (Convair) B-36s until ordered to do so by the Secretary of War. And the production order was cancelled two years later as the result of a mysterious 'latest information' note that made false claims about a reduction in Northrop's design performance, claims proven by NACA to be false later that year ... but too late, the production contracts haveing been cancelled in wartime.
With a simple fix to the gearbox (later claimed to have beeen accomplished by P&W), the B-35 would have been able to overfly all 19,000 USSR interceptors, and could have been modified into an ultra-long-range gunship able to outperform the higher-wing-loading Mig-15s at 45,000-ft. But first AF Secretary Stuart Symington instead chose to save his friend Floyd Odlum's Convair Corporation from bankruptcy in 1949, indicated by Convair's Annual Reports. And, of course, all the mods done to the B-36 to 'improve it' could have also have been done to the B-35, to keep it flying to targets a thousand miles more distant, 75 mph faster and two miles higher. Simply because the configuration of the Wing gave it a lower wing loading, a higher power loading, and a higher power-to-wetted-area loading. The B-36 was designed to be inferior from the start, and nothing could have saved it.

This aircraft was built to the same specification as the Consolidated-Vultee/Convair/General Dynamics B-36 to bomb Europe from North American bases.
(5,000 statute mile action radius with 10,000 lbs. bombs at 35,000 feet AGL and able to fight off hostile interceptors)
The XB-35 accomplished this easily and used a LOT less fuel and hardware to accomplish this mission profile than the 10 engined B-36. The 'Wing also was a lot more reliable and safer than the -36 without the structural problems and fuel and oil leaks and engine fires that constantly plagued the Fort Worth Monster. The 'Wing could also out manouver any fighter above 40,000 feet AGL and out run them as well and was nowhere near as fatiguing to fly as the -36.
Plus it was near invisible to ground control intercept radar. Fancy that!
Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington was an old drinking buddy of Harry Truman from the Pendergast political machine in Missouri and friends with the folks who ran Convair. Symington KNEW the XB-35 was far superior to the XB-36 and some say he was responsible for the government supplied components and assemblies (gearboxes and propellors) that gave the -35 such headaches.
One final thing: the XB-35 cost a lot less than the XB-36 in both prototypes and projected production run of 200 airframes.
Jack Northrup and the rest of the Free World got screwed by this magnificent aircraft being strangled at birth.