The House of representatives is debating a 1.2 trillion dollar defense appropriations bill this week. this is a stunning number considering that the federal budget for 2011 is projected at $3.83 trillion in total spending. It is beyond stunning given that the budget deficit for the fiscal year is estimated to be 1.65 trillion dollars. In a must read editorial in Today's New York Times entitled "30 Steps to Better Government," Gene L. Dodard of GAO enumerates several key areas where the Government could be doing a much better job of spending the money it does take in. If Congress is serious about deficit reduction, this DOD spending bill should not be approved without big changes.
Here's the link, more below the fold.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
While official Washington seeks to demonstrate its fiscal probity by slashing Public Radio and food aid to low income women and children, the GAO has provided a few very interesting areas where real money could be saved. I've culled the raw numbers from Mr Dodard's editorial and a quick summary of potential savings looks like this:
Uncollected taxes 290 billion
DOD Weapons System Cost Overruns 303 billion
Medicare Fraud 48 billion
Medicaid Fraud 22.5 billion
Drug Benefit Abuse 2 billion
Total 665.5 billion
The 303 billion dollars in DOD cost overruns represents the difference between what the weapons were projected to cost when they were contracted for in 2008, and what the government has paid for these same systems to date. Not only do the procurements cost more than promised, but they are on average 21 months late. For more detail, see the GAO website at:
http://www.gao.gov/...
Now, quickly, name for me the most famous fighter pilot ace of the Iraq War. How about the most famous air to air combat engagement of the war in Afghanistan? I'll forgive you if you don't know. In both cases we achieved total air superiority in the first few hours of the war. But today in Congress, the House is having a serious debate about the need for a second source for the engines serving the state of the art F35. The F35 program was proposed to cost 200 billion dollars. So far we have spent 298 billion on the program, but we are only through the first 2% of flight testing.
Why are we looking to add another "cost plus mouth to feed for a weapons system that is not up to speed, seriously late and already over budget, with no more to show for it than a hand full of working prototypes? The pentagon wants to buy 2,456 of these planes at 122 million dollars a piece. I will buy everyone who reads this diary an organic veggie burger if the final cost per plane is anything like 122 million. Lockheed Martin figures prominently in the recent report commissioned by Bernie Sanders of DOD procurement irregularities. Sec.Def. Gates did withhold about 614 million dollars in payments to the Aerospace giant on the F-35 program, but in the context of almost 300 billion, a delayed payment is a slap on the wrist.
Why the hell are we laying off fire fighters and police officers when there is so much pork buried in the defense budget? More dollars spent clearly does not equal greater security.