No matter how hard Secretary of Defense Robert Gates tries to reduce the Defense Departments budget, he runs into the political realities of Washington politics; which is slash defense spending - but as long as it doesn’t affect my state or district.
Far too long the Pentagon has been used as away to bring pork back to their states or district, all under the guise of national security. This is not reflective of just one party, but both political parties, and far too often saddle the Pentagon with billions of dollars of items that are poorly constructed, or simply unnecessary weapons systems the military doesn’t want or can use.
A prime example is the C-17 Cargo aircraft, a vessel the Air Force doesn’t want or cares to use, but because it is built in Long Beach, California, the military was saddled with a $2.7 billion dollar aircraft. The argument presented is that it is always under the guise of national security, but is it really for the nations security or the senators security?
If the nation is ever going to get a handle on its mounting federal debt, Washington needs to stop playing pork barrel politics with the Defense Department, and make sure that the weapons systems given to the Pentagon are really for the nations security and not the security of the politicians in Washington.
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