{"id":1442,"date":"2013-05-01T10:25:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T16:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2013-05-01T10:26:15","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T16:26:15","slug":"congress-keeps-approving-military-spending-for-projects-the-pentagon-doesnt-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/congress-keeps-approving-military-spending-for-projects-the-pentagon-doesnt-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress Keeps Approving Military Spending For Projects The Pentagon Doesn’t Want"},"content":{"rendered":"

by David Francis, The Fiscal Times
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

On Monday, noted deficit hawk Rep. Jim Jordan (Oh.) told the Associated Press that in the interest of national security, Congress needed to give the Pentagon $436 million to make improvements to the 70-ton Abrams tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one area where we are supposed to spend taxpayer money is in defense of the country,\u201d Jordan\u00a0told the AP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The only problem with this statement is that the Pentagon doesn\u2019t want the tank. It\u2019s an effective weapon if you\u2019re trying to take Berlin from the Nazis. But it has no practical use in combating the threats the United States faces today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, told the AP last week.<\/p>\n

The reason the program continues? Pork-barrel politics. The Pentagon budget is stuffed with pet projects that funnel money to lawmakers\u2019 districts. The tanks are just the start: In 2009, then-Defense Secretary\u00a0Robert Gates<\/a>\u00a0told Congress the defense spending bill contained\u00a0$6.9 billion for things he did not need<\/a>. Congress approved it anyway.<\/p>\n

Gates failed to resolve the tension between what needs to be done \u2013 hard-to-swallow cuts \u2013 and what\u2019s in the best interest of politicians. So did his successor, Leon Panetta. As long as Congress is thinking in their own interest, and not the fiscal interest of the country, it will be impossible to improve defense spending.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Abrams tank is made in Lima, Ohio<\/a>\u00a0where Jordan and\u00a0Senator Rob Portman<\/a>, another noted deficit hawk, represent Lima. The tanks bring jobs and money to Lima. Jobs and money keep voters happy. And happy voters keep Jordan and Portman in office.<\/p>\n

This case illustrates just how difficult a task Chuck Hagel has in slashing the defense budget. The military budget is packed with projects like these, and politicians have shown dogged determination to keep DOD\u2019s cash faucet running in their districts.<\/p>\n

REPEAT OFFENDERS\u00a0<\/strong>
\nHouse Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Hal Rogers (R) has steered hundreds of millions of dollars to his Kentucky district, while calling for deficit reduction here in DC. He secured a contract for a firm that contributed to his campaign for $17,000\u00a0drip trays used in Black Hawks<\/a>. He\u2019s so good at it that he\u2019s earned the nickname\u00a0\u201cThe Prince of Pork.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Members of the House Armed Services Committee are also notorious for inserting pork into DOD spending bills. According to a report in Time last year, the committee created a $594.7 million slush fund for members to\u00a0send projects to their home districts<\/a>.\u00a0The money was earmarked to pay for \u201cRestoration & Modernization of Facilities\u201d but the law contained no specifics on what this term meant. It served as a cover for projects sent to connected donors.<\/p>\n

Many of the pork projects contained in the budget have nothing to do with defense. According to a report by Sen.\u00a0Tom Coburn<\/a>\u00a0released last year, $68 billion included in the Pentagon\u2019s budget are for non-defense programs. These include money to develop an app that informs workers of their coffee break, as well as $1.5 million for DOD to develop its own beef jerky.<\/p>\n

Certain states also benefit disproportionately from DOD spending. In Washington, DC, the Pentagon spends more than $22,000 per resident, while in Alaska it spends $16,581. Virginia Hawaii, and Maryland round out the top five (respectively receiving $10,465, $7,790 and $4,618).<\/p>\n

SPENDING CRITICS INDULGE\u00a0<\/strong>
\nIronically, lawmakers who benefit from pork projects are also outspoken spending critics. Portman has written op-eds calling for cuts to entitlement programs to\u00a0curb the deficit<\/a>. Rogers said his job in Washington is to “scrutinize the federal budget through tough oversight, rein in wasteful government spending, and\u00a0reduce our country\u2019s deficit<\/a>\u00a0for generations to come.”<\/p>\n

Jordan\u2019s stance is especially egregious. As the chair of the Republican Study Committee, he said that while defense cuts weren\u2019t preferable, they were necessary.<\/p>\n

As long as they aren\u2019t in his district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by David Francis, The Fiscal Times click here for original article On Monday, noted deficit hawk Rep. Jim Jordan (Oh.) told the Associated Press that in the interest of national security, Congress needed to give the Pentagon $436 million to make improvements to the 70-ton Abrams tank. \u201cThe one area where we are supposed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[166],"class_list":["post-1442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-defense-budget"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/jim-jordan-1.jpg?fit=2653%2C1990&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1445,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1442\/revisions\/1445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}