In an ongoing, topic jumping discussion with conservative thinking friend Pat Hurley and liberally minded Jeffery Cross... the topic du jour is government waste.

by Michael Cummins:

I'm all for targeting waste in government, and I agree that the DoD is full of pork. Let's not forget yet another pork supermarket: the DoE.

I realize that the wheels like to stay greased, but we should be able to reduce some of the more vulgar effrontery.

So as private citizens, what can we do to promote wiser spending habits? Are there any states in the union with decent working models to follow? Tennessee is showing us that Hillary/Kerry-Care is a costly failure. California is showing us that capping contingency fees helps keep costs down. Are there any states to emulate when it comes to keeping contractor costs within reasonable limits?

by Pat Hurley

Nobody implied that a strong military must be wasteful, abusive or inefficient. But, sadly, that is the nature of government. I don't like it, I wish that it weren't, but it is. Hey, remember that five TRILLION dollars America spent on Great Society programs that were guaranteed to wipe out poverty? Where's our bang for the buck? What do we have to show for FIVE TRILLION dollars of spending? Nothing... except worse poverty, more dependency, worse schools, and horribly broken family structures in the inner cities. Where's your outrage about that colossal waste and its devastating effects on black Americans?! That kind of spending makes military waste look like pocket change.

But let me make a piercing point here, while most assuredly not condoning government waste of any kind. At least, where the military is concerned, we have a lot to show for all of the money we've spent. Ready? Here we go... ... ... the B-1 bomber, the B-2 bomber, the Apache helicopter, the M1A1 Abrams tank, the M-16 rifle, night vision technology, FLIR (forward looking infra-red) technology, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, Nimitz Class and George H.W. Bush class Super Aircraft Carriers, Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers, Trident Submarines, Patriot missles, Sidewinder missles, MOAB (mother of all bombs), the F-14 Tomcat Navy fighter jet, AWACS, and on and on and on and on and on and on. Is there waste in the Pentagon? You bet there is and I'm not happy about it and I want that to change. But you cannot deny that so much of the money spent by the Pentagon has produced an amazing array of deadly weapons that keep our enemies in check and our country safe. Name another government entity that has produced so many tremendous results?

Outrage over waste is exactly right. But please show me some balance, some even-handedness in your outrage.

by Jeffery Cross

There is only one question here to be answered..... How much of TAXPAYERS money would be saved if Republicans ran the military "like a business" as they want to do government in general?

Hipocracy drives me nuts. You've heard me say before... I'm all cutting wasteful programs that don't bring value to Americans.

The point of the article was not about just waste..... but the amount! And the repetitive nature of abuse and the abusers. What fires me up is that we have these politicians on these crusades to lower taxes and to "keep more dollars in Americans pockets" and they turn a blind eye to what is consistently the single largest source of waste and abuse of government funds according not to Jeff Cross, but from the Congressional Budget Office!!! The military is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to waste. There have been a million books written of the subject over the years. It amazes me when intelligent people imply that a strong military must be wasteful, abusive and inefficient!

Posted by Michael at November 15, 2004 09:35 PM