Posted on 09/09/2012 10:51:48 AM PDT by Mozilla
Coburn: Sequestration doesn’t have to hurt if we just cut the waste, duplication and ridiculous out of the Pentagon.
CBS News ran this report tonight and I was literally stunned at some of the “ridiculous” Coburn has found in wasteful spending in the Pentagon:
Sequestration could be Pentagon pork killer
I saw that report on see BS.
They talked about waste and fraud in the Pentagon, but what about all the other government departments and agencies? How about getting rid of welfare and EBT fraud? And why are we giving welfare and EBT cards to illegal aliens? They’re not even citizens. And on and on.
Like offer up important programs to be cut instead of the trivia. SOP
During WW II, some 16 million Americans in uniform, the number of flag officers was LESS than we have today. The Pentagon is referred to as the Puzzle Palace with good reason.
The DOD is something like 17% of the federal budget, but is the department called out in something like 80% of stories about waste.
No one, AT ALL, will convince me that there isn’t big-time fraud with all the goodie programs, like Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Old-Age Welfare, SSI (especially), and just about everything else.
...and we FReepers take the bait and pile on while the ONE CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTION of government gets beat up by people that want to shut it down (i.e., the media). Let them get the ILLEGALS (and other fraud) out of those other programs, and then they might have a case to go after DOD, but NOT UNTIL THEN. DOD is not eating this country alive, not even close.
Shame on us.
Until they start some serious "investigative" "journalism" exposing fraud, waste and abuse in welfare programs, subsidies, regulatory agencies, and the like ... it's obvious that they're not interested in saving taxpayer money. They're only interested in killing our military.
To hell with 'em.
I thought the term “Puzzle Palace” referred to the NSA?
The DOD is something like 17% of the federal budget, but is the department called out in something like 80% of stories about waste.
No one, AT ALL, will convince me that there isn’t big-time fraud with all the goodie programs, like Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Old-Age Welfare, SSI (especially), and just about everything else.
...and we FReepers take the bait and pile on while the ONE CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTION of government gets beat up by people that want to shut it down (i.e., the media). Let them get the ILLEGALS (and other fraud) out of those other programs, and then they might have a case to go after DOD, but NOT UNTIL THEN. DOD is not eating this country alive, not even close.
Shame on us.
***
Thank you.
Yeah I understand but the pentagon can be cleaned out and fixed a bit.
Of course there’s big time fraud in all the welfare programs. And, for the record, I view SS/Medicare as welfare.
But the GOP is politically stupid to not give the Democrats exactly what they want.
Liberals want to cut defense spending? Okie-dokey, we can do that. We’ll cut the programs that benefit liberal congressional districts and blue states the most.
Now, because the liberals said that they’d cut social spending after we cut the DOD budget, our side should stand up and say “You wanted cuts in defense spending... and we delivered cuts in defense spending. Now let’s start going after fraud and abuse of the welfare programs!”
And the Democrats are then stuck. They said they’d talk about cuts in social programs after defense cuts. Keep trumpeting the fact that they lied - we offered up cuts in DOD spending and they changed the subject (which is what you know they’re going to do).
The DOD budget is clearly out of control, BTW. There’s so much nonsense contained therein it isn’t funny. I could sit down their a detailed DOD budget and cut $200B in an afternoon’s review and it wouldn’t change our defense readiness a jot. The waste and fraud I’ve heard about from returning young men from Iraq and Afghanistan is mind-boggling, and a lot of it going to well-connected contractors and hangers-on of the DOD in the DC Beltway.
Incredible.
It is incredible.
Talking to senior NCO’s who have retired from the military after 20+ years of service, they tell tales of far, far too many officers for our own good.
See, there’s only so many billets in the military. So what do all these high-level officers do?
They engage in back-room politics, policy-making and mischief - most all of which does nothing to help us. But boy oh boy, does it help their careers and retirement bennies.
“We’ll cut the programs that benefit liberal congressional districts and blue states the most.”
I’ve seen maps showing where various program funding is spent. For big projects like the B1 and Future Combat systems if you made every state line disappear, you’d still make out an outline of the country. Savvy players spread the money into virtually every congressional district. On one project, a company opened a unit in the budget chairman’s district and sent substantial business and jobs there. The projects I’ve been associated with are never in just one state or district.
The Army picked up the airfare, rental car, hotel and per-diem. The reason is that the system is propriety and the soldiers can't touch it.
Of course. The beltway bandits saw this moment coming from a decade or more away.
Still, there’s ways to cut the DOD budget that will make liberals wish they had not bought the subject up.
On taxes: Oh, the GOP should drop their “no new taxes” pledge. They should even volunteer to raise taxes on the rich - because the rich vote disproportionally for the DNC, and the rich donate much more to the DNC than to the GOP.
Take the AMT. We can play with the AMT to raise the pain level of the US income tax for most of the blue states with high state taxation. That could be a lot of fun - a double whammy, as it were. Decrease the point at which paying high state taxes and claiming them as a deduction on the 1040 kicks in the AMT.
Or there’s other taxes: Put on a transaction tax on non-listed financial securities. Whammo, the big bankers are bent over in a hurry. Put additional taxes on hedge funds and HFT’s. Goes right to the heart of the DNC money machine.
Last place I’d go is after trusts and 501(c)(3)’s that engage in political posturing. This is the breadbasket of the left. Tighten the rules and rule enforcement against political positioning of these non-profits - then enforce it hard.
The point is, the GOP could be giving liberals exactly what they *claim* they want - good and hard - and the liberals would be back-peddling so fast, they’d leave skidmarks in their own underwear.
Writing as a retired Lt Col, I’d say you could cut the officer force by 30-40% without impacting operations. Maybe a 25% cut in company grade, 50% cut in field grade, and 75% cut in General Officers...
Your last two estimates are pretty much what a retired USA CSM told me too.
““You wanted cuts in defense spending... and we delivered cuts in defense spending. Now let’s start going after fraud and abuse of the welfare programs!””
Are you Karl Rove, or something. The Dems ALWAYS take us to the cleaners when we give in first. The Dems, in your example, will take the DOD cuts and then walk away from the table laughing. Bush’s father (really Richard Darman) is still waiting for all of those budget cuts that were promised in return for his famous tax increase...it’s been 20+ years and they’re still waiting.
Only The Establishment believes we can beat the Dems by acting like gentlemen.
We have something like 76 federal assistant programs, I bet each one has a bureaucracy.
How about we merge them into one ?
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