Here are the 10 most blatantly wasteful defense items in the recent $1.8 trillion spending bill.<\/p>\n
Preamble: Senator John McCain knows only too well about defense waste \u2013 as a decorated Navy pilot and now Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During passage of the recent $1.8 billion overall spending bill,, with $572 billion for defense, McCain rose on the Senate floor \u201cto call attention to the triumph of pork barrel parochialism in this year\u2019s Omnibus Appropriation bill.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He cast a lonely but striking \u201cno\u201d vote on the bill.\u00a0 As he described the passage process: \u201chere we stand with a 2000-page omnibus appropriations bill, crafted in secret with no debate, which most of us are seeing for the first time this morning.\u201d\u00a0 It was clear that neither he, nor Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, could control the bill.<\/p>\n
What was sneaked through?<\/p>\n
1 \u2013 3: \u00a0Aircraft \u201cwish lists.\u201d \u00a0The military services have an elaborate mechanism each year, with the connivance of Members of Congress, to overspend on costly weapons.\u00a0 It starts with the Defense Department trying to weigh priorities in putting together the official Presidential budget.\u00a0 But, the services can make their own \u201cwish lists\u201d of weaponry for which the President would not budget \u2013 an invitation for contractors to lobby Congress.<\/p>\n
(1) Lawmakers included $1.33 billion for 11 additional F-35s above and beyond the budget. The F-35 has an incredible list of cost overruns and unsolved system problems.\u00a0 The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found, in effect, that the software, the manufacturing processes, the parts, were all unready for prime time.<\/p>\n
Also, lawmakers included $1.01 billion for (2) seven additional EA-18G Growler electronic aircraft and (3) five more F\/A-18 Super Hornets. The prices of these have risen, and the Presidential budget made tradeoffs as to how many to buy.\u00a0 We bought the extra billion dollars anyway.<\/p>\n
(4)\u00a0Enormous non-budgeted \u201csubmarine spending fund.\u201d This is a new fund that is meant to keep the super-expensive new nuclear missile submarine outside the normal shipbuilding budget. It\u2019s the \u201cNational Sea-Based Deterrence Fund.\u201d\u00a0 Every dollar of the submarine costs, which is a $90 billion \u2013 plus program, comes out of the Treasury, just, it will not be weighed against other Navy choices.<\/p>\n
(5)\u00a0Approving the Russian rocket engine monopoly. This was McCain\u2019s bete noir. At present, our military satellite launches all make use of the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing<\/a> <\/span>and Lockheed Martin<\/a><\/span>, which use Russian rocket engines.\u00a0 Congress and the Defense Department initially refused to give those companies relief from a new ban on use of the Russian engine after 2019. \u00a0But, the omnibus spending bill end-ran McCain and set the stage for the companies to stick with Russian engines.<\/p>\n (6)\u00a0Protecting wasteful bases. Periodically, the President and Congress go through a round of base-closing to close facilities that are no longer needed. President Obama asked to start such a round, and officials thought it would save $2 billion\/year but Congress would have none of it.\u00a0 Members of Congress hate seeing bases closed in their districts or states. Congress took the extraordinary step, not merely to refuse to start a round, but even to bar studying or considering one.<\/p>\n (7)\u00a0Mississippi\u2019s cutter. The New York Times said it all: \u201cLanguage inserted into the federal budget over the objection of the Obama administration by Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, directed the Coast Guard to build a $640 million National Security<\/a> Cutter in Mississippi that the Coast Guard says it does not need.\u201d<\/p>\n (8)\u00a0Maine\u2019s destroyer. Again, the New York Times said it all: A provision \u201cwhich Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, helped secure, appropriated an extra $1 billion for a Navy destroyer that is likely to be built at Bath Iron Works in her state. The Defense Department had not requested money for the additional ship in this year\u2019s budget.\u201d<\/p>\n (9)\u00a0The grossly excessive \u201cLittoral Combat Ship\u201d (LCS) program. The LCS is a Navy ship meant to be able to sail close to shore. It has had several negative reports by the GAO, and one of the newest LCSs broke down at sea in December.\u00a0 Nonetheless, Austal USA just announced an award within a $3.5 billion LCS contract.\u00a0 So the LCS program is still funded, even though the Secretary of Defense is trying to cut the program back.<\/p>\n (10)\u00a0Last but not least: Guantanamo.\u00a0 A recent estimate was that Guantanamo costs $454 million annually, perhaps\u00a0$2.7 million per inmate. \u00a0President Obama asked to close it.\u00a0 Instead, in\u00a0this bill, Congress put a whole series of barriers in the way.<\/p>\n