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Madison Daily Leader	home : news : news : opinion

Pork barrel defense projects threaten national security

By JON M. HUNTER, Publisher

08/26/2009

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We've grown more concerned about pork barrel projects in the Defense Department, and consider them a threat to national security.

One of the latest and most public projects was to spend $550 million on Air Force passenger planes for use by senior government officials, including members of Congress. The extra luxury jets more than doubled the request by the Pentagon. After harsh public criticism, the plan was dropped.

But the luxury jet issue is just an example of the fiscal abuse that takes place when Congress appropriates money for the department.

While the overall budget for the Department of Defense keeps growing at a rapid pace, defense analysts say the Pentagon isn't getting the resources it needs to fight wars, modernize equipment and systems and take care of military personnel. What gives?

Among the most irritating are earmarks, the special favors members of Congress put in appropriations bills that help members' own districts. Often, these are projects at a base in the member's district, which will employ civilian contractors and perhaps justify keeping a base open when the Pentagon looks to become efficient.

Another waste is in purchasing weapons, in which huge cost overruns have become routine. Consider the F-22 Raptor. During the Clinton years, the Pentagon planned on buying 648 jets at a cost of $60 million each. Today, they cost $350 million each, so now we can only buy 187 of them.

The truth is that these cost overruns cost us not just money but also security. If we can buy less than one-third the number of jets we need, that's a national security risk.

We need to get individual members of Congress out of micromanaging the Defense Department. Allowing Pentagon leadership to make decisions based on national security is a better way.

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