An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77 prepares to land aboard the littoral combat ship USS Freedom, on June 7, 2011.

An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77 prepares to land aboard the littoral combat ship USS Freedom, on June 7, 2011. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication 2nd Class Aaron Burden/Released

Lawmakers Should Listen to the Budget Hawks, Not the Defense Hawks

There are plenty of ways the Pentagon could spend its money more efficiently.

As the House and Senate unveil their fiscal 2016 budgets this week, there is “a war within the Republican Party,” as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recently put it, over just how much money Congress will dole out to the Pentagon.

However, nobody has said why or how the currently prescribed funding levels are inadequate to deal with the threats facing the United States today and beyond, nor do they explain how throwing more money at the Pentagon will make America safer.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, have argued for increasing the Pentagon’s budget exponentially while others like Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., think that budget caps “are one of the best things that’s happened to the finances of the country.”

If defense hawks like McCain get their way, the Pentagon budget will balloon to as much as $613 billion using a combination of funds from the Pentagon’s base and war funding accounts. That is $90 billion more than the ceiling established by the 2011 Budget Control Act, which would ostensibly be labeled as war funding, but in reality would go to fund programs normally found in the Pentagon’s base.

There are plenty of ways the Pentagon could spend its money more efficiently. As McCain well knows, one of the most serious financial problems facing the nation is how so many taxpayer dollars are wasted on military programs that aren’t needed and on abuses in Pentagon spending. McCain has been a longtime critic of the infamous problems with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the poster child of Pentagon’s wasteful excess. The military has and will spend more on this aircraft than France and the United Kingdom together spend on defense in one year. What’s more, the F-35 hasn’t come close to proving its value and isn’t necessary to meet today’s security challenges. 

Another mainstay in the Pentagon’s waste saga is the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS. While the good news is that the Defense Department has reduced the number it plans to purchase, the bad news is the LCS costs over $300 million more per ship than was originally proposed. These ships have caught on fire and been plagued with other operational issues. And there are two versions of the faulty ship made by two different companies, which has dramatically increased the cost of building and maintaining the ships. 

(RelatedGOP Budget Hawks Want To Use War Funds To Skirt Defense Caps)

Cost overruns in weapons programs draining Pentagon coffers have been well documented. According to a recent Government Accountability Office assessment, more than half of the Pentagon’s top weapons programs increased in cost last year alone by $27 billion. To put that number in perspective, that’s about what the entire Department of Energy spends in one year and about half of the Department of Homeland Security’s annual budget.

Compounding the problem further is the fact that the Pentagon has no idea whether it is spending its money efficiently. That’s because the Defense Department is the only federal agency that has not completed an audit, a shortcoming that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., recently called “simply unacceptable.” He is one of several bipartisan members of Congress behind various sensible bills to audit the Pentagon. The House bill’s cosponsor, Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said, “If you were an individual stockholder in a company, you’d expect a yearly report, you’d expect a profit-loss statement, you’d expect a pro forma future projection of earnings, but we don’t seem able to get the most basic data out of the Pentagon.”

Instead of giving the Defense Department many more billions of dollars without sufficient accountability or adequate oversight, Congress should insist that the Pentagon institute the controls necessary to stop wasting taxpayer dollars.

Fortunately, it appears that the appropriators see things differently from the authorizers. House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., isn’t willing to exceed the defense spending caps set by the Budget Control Act. If Graham’s prognosis is correct, Price isn’t alone in the GOP.  And Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said last week that DOD must “corral wasteful spending” before Congress considers appropriating more than allowed by the caps.

Lawmakers should follow the lead of Price and Sanders: let’s figure out how the Pentagon spends its money and sets priorities before we blow the budget caps and give it more to waste.   

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.