Defense Budget Bloat

by Walter J. Cheney All of us know that there is fat in the military budget and we would like our military leaders to work diligently to eliminate military pork-barreling. But when military leaders conclude that they don't need 20 more B-2 bombers that cost approximately $500 million each and lawmakers from both parties add $500 million to the defense bill as a down payment on the purchase of 20 more of these hugely expensive aircraft, we can't blame the military leaders. This is for a bomber which lost its military rationale with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of precise-guided munitions as a more cost-effective alternate to bombers. This is for a bomber that never passed its tests of effectiveness or radar-evasiveness, yet 20 were still built. And the initial cost of a bomber is only the beginning as year-in-and-year-out maintenance is even more costly.

Nor did the lawmakers follow the advice of the Pentagon when they added $2 billion for amphibious ships built in the Mississippi hometown of Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott, $777 million for unneeded aircraft and equipment for reserve units or $470 million worth of planes not wanted by the Air Force and Navy.

The real problem with all of this has to do with politicians filling the trough of those who can return them to office -- the voters back home. I can't believe we need to make equipment we don't need just to make jobs.

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Last update 5/30/96