I agree with George Will that it’s okay to reduce Pentagon spending. After all, the United States accounts for almost one-half of the world’s military outlays, about twice as much as the combined total of possible enemies.
But I also agree that national defense is one of the few legitimate functions of the federal government, so I want to make sure we get the most bang for the buck (no pun intended) from every penny.
That’s why I get especially irritated when I read horror stories about Pentagon waste.
But in many cases, it’s not the fault of the Generals and Admirals. America’s military is forced to waste money because the politicians in Washington are motivated by cronyism, corruption, pork, and political correctness.
For example, let’s look at an excerpt from a column in the Washington Examiner.
Imagine you’re a legislator in a country with a bloated budget of almost $4 trillion and a record level of spending that requires massive deficits and could mean job-killing tax increases. Now imagine you’ve got a weapons program that is billions over budget, a decade behind schedule and unwanted even by those for whom it is intended. What would you do? If you said, “Earmark the program another $380 million,” you’re apparently qualified to serve on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. The weapons program is the Medium Extended Air Defense System, a joint venture with Germany and Italy that was zeroed out by three of four relevant congressional funding authorities. But the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense decided the program was worth a $380 million earmark, and the full committee passed the final bill along with a unanimous vote.
I’m not an expert on weapons systems. Heck, I know less about such matters than Obama’s cabinet knows about the economy. But it certainly seems foolish to throw good money after bad on a program that doesn’t work. Especially when the military doesn’t want it!
And here are a couple of sentences from a Forbes column about part of the military budget being diverted to subsidize solar power.
The U.S. Army is looking for a few good renewable energy projects. Some $7 billion worth. On Tuesday the Army began accepting bids for green energy installations that will be deployed on military bases and facilities across the U.S. The Army will sign contracts to buy the electricity generated by solar, wind, geothermal and biomass projects for up to 30 years. …The program is part of a Department of Defense initiative to meet at least 25% of energy demand on its bases from renewable sources by 2025. The military is also aiming its bases to become “net zero” consumers of electricity – generating more power than they use by installing solar and other renewable energy systems.
Silly me. I thought the Pentagon was responsible for keeping the nation safe. I guess I missed the memo where it was tasked with being a tool for the green agenda.
These examples doubtlessly are just the tip of the iceberg. Politicians can’t resist turning anything they touch into a vehicle for graft, waste, and foolishness.
To be sure, there are also big picture issues of national security that have to be resolved. Is NATO now an anachronism, as Steve Chapman persuasively argues? Is overseas intervention a pointless exercise, as Mark Steyn explains?
But whatever the mission, the Pentagon’s ability to carry it out is compromised when politicians treat the military budget like a goodie bag.
[…] military opposed some of the many ways that politicians insert waste, fraud, inefficiency, and pork in the Pentagon’s […]
[…] military opposed some of the many ways that politicians insert waste, fraud, inefficiency, and pork in the Pentagon’s […]
[…] if you want other examples of military waste, click here, here, […]
[…] if you want other examples of military waste, click here, here, and […]
there is a potential national security crisis evolving in California and new mexico… portions of their respective national guard units have been federalized… meaning that the federal government has taken command and control functions away from the state governors… these units are now under the command of the executive branch of the federal government… the problem arises when the governors of these states attempt to issue unlawful orders to those units… ordering them to withdraw from the federal mission… and accept a state reassignment… those acts can not be tolerated… if the president were to commit national guard units to a military action in defense of the nation and individual governors who disagreed with his or her actions were allowed to countermand federal orders it could be disastrous… when national guard troops are federalized… they are under the command of the president of the united states… not their home state governors… after brown vs. board of education in 1954 the national guard was involved in several conflicts between the executive branch and renegade state governors… who resisted racial integration… Eisenhower used federal troops to convince Governor Fabius’s of Arkansas and his national guard to stand down and allow black and students (the little rock 9) to integrate Central High School… in 1963 JFK federalized the Alabama national guard… they forced Governor George Wallace to step aside and allow black students to register for summer classes… when national guard units are federalized… they are under the command and control of the president of the United States… Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California are way the hell out of line….
this is a real test of trump’s toxic masculinity…
[…] to do any research, they would have found numerous columns on Pentagon waste, including here, here, here, here, and […]
[…] about two minutes into the video. And if you think the point is exaggerated, click here and here for 21st-century […]
[…] But I would like the Defense Department to have some flexibility to reallocate funds so that we spend money on national security rather than boondoggles. […]
Why visitors still use to read news papers when
in this technological world all is available on web?
[…] But I would like the Defense Department to have some flexibility to reallocate funds so that we spend money on national security rather than boondoggles. […]
[…] unfortunate that politicians misallocate military spending for parochial reasons, but it’s equally worrisome that they risk blood and treasure in ways […]
[…] But I would like the Defense Department to have some flexibility to reallocate funds so that we spend money on national security rather than boondoggles. […]
[…] But I would like the Defense Department to have some flexibility to reallocate funds so that we spend money on national security rather than boondoggles. […]
The Army does want MEADS. But the Obama administration does not. I can understand not wanting to pay for the R&D of a system you don’t plan to purchase and deploy. However we have already paid the bulk of the R&D cost. The additional ~400M$ would at least buy us the tech data, and allow us to purchase the system should a future President have different notions on national defense.
Besides, we, the US, signed an agreement with Germany and Italy to pay for part, the larger part to be sure, of the cost to develope the system.
PRESIDENT ALBERT GORE, JR
AL GORE WON AND WAS ELECTED( NOT SELECTED)
A LOOK AT A DIFFERENT 2010
He would have continued Clinton/Newt Fiscal Policies of Pay Your Way
We would continue to have Surpluses not Debt as far as the eye can see
Debt today would be 6000B not 15000B
2010 Budget would be 3000B not 3800
Unemployment would be 5% not the real 17%.
Food Stamp Roll would be 10% not 46%
Unemployment Insurance Roll would be low
Redistribution of Wealth back to Middle Class would have continued
The top 1% would own 20% not 43% of Total Financial Wealth
He would have continued Taxing the top 1%
Wall Street Regulators would be under experts not Partners In Crime
We would have 400 military bases not 800 worldwide
We would not have two wars
We would not have lost thousands of lives of young youths
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims would still be alive
Thousands of young Muslims would still have legs feet and minds
America would still be the most admired nation on Earth not the most despised
We would go back to behaving as a Christ-Like nation via our national policies
Millions would own homes not foreclosure notices
States would not be laying off hundreds of thousands in such important jobs as
Teaching and Policing California would have a balanced budget
John Kerry would be President.
Sound common sense policies would continue.
It’s time for Iowahawk to do a Video on the new “Al Gore T-64 Hybrid Tank with Solidarity Drive”.
With slogans like: “Designed by compassionate misanthropes to kill humans, not the planet!”, “Don’t just reduce growth rates by half making people in one hundred years six to eight times poorer (and shorter lived) than they would otherwise be — Take the next step in saving the planet — reduce CO2 at its true source while there is still time — support the Al Gore T-64 Hybrid Tank with Solidarity Drive”. “Not only is it mean, not only is it green, but it creates jobs while reducing the applicants available to fill them. It’s a win-win perpetual motion stimulus machine”. “Even the poorest third world enemy will emit over five tons of harmful CO2 over his prosperity aspiring lifetime. Do your part, save the planet by supporting green killing technology, support the Al Gore T-64 Hybrid Tank with Solidarity Drive — kill enemies while saving the polar bear at the same time – and do it before they get any ideas about independence and prosperity and buy their first Tata car”. “The Al Gore T-64 Hybrid Tank with Solidarity Drive! It’s carbon neutral, one hundred percent recycled and bird friendly bullets target CO2 emissions at their true source – humans”, ”big footprints on the ground, not the atmosphere”, “ruthless on enemies, kind on the planet” – “It’s mean, it’s green, it’s inconvenient, but it’s here to stay”. “Don’t spend billions on consumerism, tell your congressman to invest them in something that will truly address the problem: The Al Gore T-64 Hybrid Tank with Solidarity Drive”.”Don’t just wage war. Wage planet friendly green war”.
Next on the series: “How to get to the moon on seventy billion, only thirty grams of CO2, and have the rich pay for the whole thing”.
How much is too much? We need revenue for many things like Education.
Health Care, Affordable Housing
I have always said to people I know that the green movement is not about saving the planet. Rather, it’s a movement to put green into someone’s pocket. Rememmber the dot.com craze? This is the same thing except it’s the government doling out the money for failed enterprises. Got a scam, er cause? Let the government help you along. This accomplishes three things: the scammers get green in their pockets; the wanna-be people get green with envy; and the rest of us get sickly green from the largesse!
The military is aware that its dependence on petroleum is a deadly vulnerability. You are very naive if you think the generals have to get their arms twisted to go for renewables.
Reblogged this on Gds44's Blog.
Don’t all of those things that fire projectiles generate a lot of CO2? Maybe we could have folks train the military on how to aggressively sing Kumbaiyah. That should employ about half of Californicatia.
Dan, I really like your common sense articles, and this one really calls out Congressmen taking liberties with our money. But………..another area that I have never seen anybody tackle is specific budget issues, as in individual departments budgets. I think many people are familiar with this process but don’t consider it a bad policy. When it comes to the end of the budget year, usually about the last month, supervisors tell their subordinates to start spending all the remaining budget money to clear out their budget, usually on spurious and unneeded parts, supplies, tools, etc, to show that they really need the same amount of money or more for the next year, instead of turning whatever is left over back. This happens throughout all government agencies, corporations, local government departments, school boards, and on and on.
I think some consideration should be given to some concept to prevent this huge waste of money at the end of the budget year, especially by military and government agencies. I think a detailed audit should be done to illuminate the pervasive nature of this problem.
Back to COUNTY banking like S&L–local owners-local loans-local wealth recirculated in A county
Americans want their pound of flesh, and rightfully so. We’ve seen our bankers commit every kind of financial crime imaginable. They trade on insider information. They manipulate markets. They rig bets. They fix prices. They sell securities that are designed to fail so that they can bet against them. They launder money for rogue nations. They create too-big-to-fail banks that gamble with impunity knowing that we will bail them out again and again. And they collectively crashed the economy causing 8 million workers to lose their jobs.
5 TOO BIG HOLD 50% OF DEPOSITS IN ABOUT 7000 AND 10% HOLD 80%
IT IS CALLED M O N O P O L Y