Shock and Audit: The Hidden Defense Budget
What the Pentagon really spends. Part 1 of a Mother Jones special report.
This is Part I of a Mother Jones special report on the defense budget. Click the links for Part II, III, IV and V.
The Defense Budget That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Somewhere in the middle regions of Barack Obama's Herculean to-do list is a task that's defeated many of his predecessors: taming the runaway Pentagon budget. Earlier this year, to much fanfare, Obama and his defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, released a Defense Department budget proposal that slashed several troubled weapons programs and promised further reforms to combat rampant waste. But although the press touted the proposals as bold and ambitious, they sounded suspiciously like the basic budgeting tips a financial adviser would dispense if you'd lost total control of your personal expenses. The essential principles were:
- Keep track of money that comes in and goes out
- Don't buy things you don't need
- Don't buy things that don't work
- If you do buy something that doesn't work, don't order 200 more of them
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Will Congress Torpedo Defense Reform?
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House Lawmakers Fight for the F-22
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Gates on Defense
GATES ON DEFENSE....In Foreign Affairs, once and future Defense Secretary Robert Gates writes about the need for a greater focus within the Pentagon on counterinsurgency and prosecution of small wars:One of the enduring issues the military struggles with is whether...
Unfortunately, Washington pols have been saying similar things ever since the Defense Department was created. And over the years a nearly constant procession of blue-ribbon commissions and special taskforces and congressional crusades has attempted to tackle the problem and failed. (See, for example, the Fitzhugh Commission, the Grace Commission, the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, the Packard Commission, the Carlucci Initiatives, the Defense Management Review, the National Performance Review, the Bottom-Up Review, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, the Federal Acquisition Improvement Act, the Acquisition Streamlining Task Force, Total System Performance Responsibility, and the spiral development and capabilities-based acquisition initiatives.) Cost overruns for major weapons programs now total $296 billion. We could never afford this rampant squandering of public money, but now, with the economy in crisis, the need to end the Pentagon's profligacy has become even more urgent.
But will Obama's attempt at reform be any different from all those that have gone before? Over the next few weeks, Mother Jones will attempt to find out. We'll dig into the gory details of Pentagon spending and watch out for porky shenanigans as Gates' budget makes its way through Congress. We'll take you behind the scenes to meet the key players who will determine whether the Pentagon cleans up its act or continues on with business as usual. Above all, we promise to do our best to make it interesting. You can read our reports here; if you have tips or questions that you want us to chase up, send them to rmorris@motherjones.com.
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Thank you!
Why, oh why, is this not a priority for every major news outlet in this country? Thank you MJ for delving into this topic and attempting to shine a light into a very dark and bottomless pit.
The time for endless multi-million dollar "black project" line items needs to end.
Double Madness
Just to ice this cake. A key spending bill passed last week, had several c-17 cargo planes slipped into it at the last minute, to the tune of several billion dollars. This would be the thrird time the c-17's have continued to be purchased, despite the fact the Pentagon does not want them. The military brass, as any parent of a typical 9 year old would recognise, have never seen a shiny new toy they could not live without, but even they were complaining that they had more than enough of this particular one.
One of the most remarkably naseuting things i've witnessed in a senate hearing, and that's saying allot, was a group of senators berating a line up of generals for having the temerity to resist buying more toys. The generals were on the recieving end of a lecture in which the sentors inisited the generals were confused about the true requirements they would need. it is at that moment thast i realized, WERE DOOMED!
Reply to Double Madness - That's not how it works, my friend!
This premise about spoiled general and flag officers may create some bravado among a few readers, but that's not how it works in real life. These uniformed officers go deliver the mail to Congress for budgets that are largely developed by the civil service corps. In case you didn't know, it's the Senior Executive Service (SES, or high ranking civilians) that make nearly all of the acquisition and budgeting decisions at the Pentagon. It's no secret that every Service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) is let by a civilian Secretary, to whom the senior officer of that service is accountable to.
So if it makes you feel good, go ahead and bash the Army guy (or Navy guy, or whatever). Just remember that civilians call the shots at the Pentagon, and our uniformed members take orders from those higher ranking career (and appointed) civilian service professionals. It's not just reality, it's federal statute. This does not mean that uniformed members are automatically "yes men", just that they're supposed to be team players (who genuinely work to preserve our country's freedom). And they raise hell in private, not in committed, not in front of CSPAN. The main thing that uniformed members do is develop and validate warfighting requirements (identify capability shortfalls), and the (largely civilian) acquisition corps determines how to close this gap with material (by getting money to buy stuff). The Army guy is more concerned with fulfilling his statutory requirements (as in Title 10, to organize, equip, and train) so that our military will be successful when ordered into harms way. The same way you'd protect your own kids when given the chance.
You want to do some good? Write a letter to congress. You may not get an answer, but somebody in that office is keeping tally of your opinion, and opinions equal votes. It's more powerful than many of us recognize.
Cheers
Re: That's not how it works, my friend! new
You say it's civilians who call the shots? I think it's the other way around. Isn't it? I think there are hundreds or resources on the net which show that military defense contractors hire lobbyists, who engage in influence peddling to the military brass and sometimes directly to Congress which in turn drives our weapons and military hardware acquisitions. As a matter of fact and I think this is routine in almost all federal agencies the revolving door leads to a military retiree moving up the ladder to say Boeing or whatever flavor of defense contractor they enriched while at the Pentagon? Surely you know this is the way it works. Of course the SES makes the decisions.....with lots of influence from Congress' earmarks-pet projects and defense contractor lobbyists.
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Finances
We all have to be smart on spending money whether personal money or national budget. It still belongs to people and we all deserve to know where our taxes are going. It’s just like our salary that we wanted to make sure how we spent it. Sometimes good luck and quick paydays are too far and too few between, and instead of a quick payday you end up looking into a quick payday loan instead. Quick payday loans come in handy if you have a temporary situation you need to resolve with some fast cash and you need to get some financing squared away, double quick time. Many lenders have no fax loans as part of their services, and there are others that take applications over the phone or the internet, and can direct deposit the funding you need, some in a few hours. You can try a quick loan if you can't get a quick payday.
Monetary Reform
Unfortunately the United States government meaning our Congress uses the Federal Reserve system as a quick "payday loan company". In our Constitution it states that congress has the authority to "coin money and regulate the value thereof". Congress has given away their authority to coin money and regulate the value of our money to a privately held central bank called the Federal Reserve. This is unconstitutional but the American people have up until now never questioned Congress on this. We The People of this country need to demand accountability of Congress for allowing this action that they did way back in 1913 to continue. Congress has allowed this private banking cartel which controls our money and the value of it to continue violating the American people with creating a hidden tax called an inflation tax. Our government has the authority to print our money interest free, if the President and Congress would order the Treasury Department to print the money needed to finance our government affairs and this money printed by our Treasury Department would be printed and used interest free owing no interest money to anybody instead of owing money in interest payments to the greedy bankers of the Federal Reserve and whatever international bankers the Federal Reserve contracts with. I believe there is no excuse on behalf of the Congress, they have the authority to change the way our government finances itself and instead they choose to force the taxpayers to fund the government agencies and steel money from the people by force and taxation. Is this the type of government We The People want?
Point Taken Anonymous at
Point Taken Anonymous at 6:30, about the extent to which civilian control, and the political system therein is the true driver of the pentagons prolifigacy. That's why I made a pointed effort to describe the very absurdity of politicians insisting that they have a better understanding of miltiary requirements than the military leadership. I also accept that the analogy comparing the military leadership with children is too much, and a little childish. But it is implausable to suggest that the military leadership is not intimately involved in this orgy of military spending. At best this is a three way partnership, between the defense industry, the political establishment, and the military itself. Thousands of new fighter jets, dozens of multi-billion dollar submarines, and hundreds of programs that emphasize expensive high tech gizmo's, are an symptom of the symbiotic relationship between an miltiary establishment that gets much of what it wants, and in turn knows to want things that deliver big pork projects to political constituents. A majority of the hardware we have is unnecessary to the conflicts we face, a new generation of fighter jets or multi-billion dollar submarines will not transform the Afghan war, or struggles against abusayef, or the somali milita, these require a completely different mindset, than what we have now. Drones and special forces units, do not deliver 100 billion dollar programs, whereas unconstrained views of reality, an army prepared for two simultaneous wars, that requires vast capability unmatched by any opponent anwhere by many magnitudes, is the mindset of a child. Someone who does not have to pay for his choices.
Your point is also well taken
Yes, you're definitely clued into the challenges our nation will face in the 21st Century. The Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, has been fighting the Pentagon bureaucracy since the minute he stepped foot in the door. One of his biggest challenges has been to change the mindset of the Air Force, which is intent on maintaining air superiority against an enemy that does not exist. Exhibit A is the F-22 which he tried to kill in January (and Congress is intent on resurrecting). He has pushed the Air Force to send more Predator Unarmed Aerial Vehicles (UAV) into theater to provide better situational awareness for the ground forces and met stiff resistance (yet the SecDef prevailed). Frankly, the Top Gun, "fighter pilots are the center of the universe" is systemic in the Air Force even though these systems are not used frequently enough to justify the investment. Deterrence is an arguement, but it is an arguement nonetheless.
Concerning Special Forces, the SecDef has made great strides to get DoD more focused on counterinsurgency and cultural awareness, both tenets of irregular warfare. He's also increased the end strength of Special Forces Groups by a battalion each, although these types of soldiers cannot be mass produced and it will take about five-to-ten years to fill out the ranks. We're facing enemies that can institute tactics overnight, obtain materials to make detonators (shipped by international carrier to most anywhere in the world), and can change on the fly. However, our special operations forces are making immense strides to adapt to a constantly changing battlespace (in conjuction with the security provided by general purpose forces). There are quite a few success stories of streamlined acquisition that provide the right equipment at fair prices, and not at the incredibly inflated costs that the major defense contractors seem to be able to justify for unnecessary weapon systems (to fight an enemy that does not exist). As much as we'd like technology to do the dirty work, you can't clear a house with a robot.
So alas, all is not lost, it will probably take a generation before we can finally rid our military of those dead-enders that still believe that a major conventional war will occur. Iraq is probably as big as it will ever get (nation state) but you better believe that cyberspace is where nations will be crippled in the future, whether it's foreign currency transactions or turning off the water/oil/food. It doesn't take an Army division to create chaos in many of our first and second world nations, just stop the flow of food for a couple of days and see what happens.
Thanks for your comments.
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It's not clear why both fiscal year 2009 supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan is included in the calculated total for fiscal year 2010, if that is what the total figure of $780.4 represents. An explanation (if the includion is correct) would be helpful.
Omitted from that total, I believe, is any calculation of the expected increase during FY2010 in pension obligations for military and civilian members of the Department of Defense and other employees of defense-related activities.
Finally, given the approximations involved, it would be better to round all figures to the nearest billion dollars; otherwise, figures presented can be said to have spurious accuracy (fake precision).
Thanks...
...to everyone for all the smart comments--especially to the observant poster (Anonymous 2.09) who commented on the inclusion of the C17s in the war supplemental. Check out the third installment of our package on Wednesday for more on this. And to the previous poster (Anonoymous 2.19) -- that particular FY09 supplemental (ie. not all of the FY09 war supplementals, just one bill) was supposed to be voted on last year, but got held over until this year instead. It was just passed by Congress and will be appropriated this year, which is why it's included here.
missing
There are billions more hidden.
Some $30 billion of military retirement pay is in the Dept. of Treasury budget.
Congress provides tax exemptions for much military pay (combat pay and housing allowances) which provides billions of dollars in off-budget benefits.) Moreover, how can you miss the $90 billion of so of VA spending?
The Hidden Defense Budget
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Some previous studies on this subject at http://www.twf.org/News/Y2003/0122-Pentagon.html
Why is it called a "Defence Budget" when not a single dime has
been used to actually defend and protect American soil, in half a century? Perhaps a more honest and accurate term would be "Offense Budget", as we spend gazzillions we don't have, to interadventureneer into the internal affairs of foreign countries - apparently, in an effort to create enemies we wouldn't otherwise have.
Little things add up. Take a
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Little things add up. Take a look at how often each service changes uniforms. How about those extremely unatractive, useless berets that the army forced everyone to wear, that no one wants to wear?
There is major defense
There is major defense spending in virtually every state and congressional district. So, it's very difficult to get your senator and representative to vote to cut spending in their state or district. Moreover, people who live in such districts do not want defense (or any) spending in their areas to be cut. The most recent BRAC decided that the Niagara Air Force Base in Upstate NY should be among those closed. Sen. Chuck Schumer and others stepped up to the plate and worked very hard to keep it open...they were successful. They argued, among other things, that the base was the only one along the very dangerous U.S./Canadian border for some distance and was needed. The real reason was to keep the money flowing to Upstate NY. And one could see the media reporting morph from "this will really hurt us economically" (the truth) to "this base is really needed" (a falsehood). Many, perhaps most people in Upstate NY wanted that base kept open because of the economic damage done if it were closed. Never mind that the base, and most military spending is wasteful and Upstate NY would be far better off attracting new industry to the area. I wanted the base closed. Of course, all municipalities must bribe industries to move there. It seems that military spending, not to mention how we manage our local economies has distorted our entire economic system. The problem with military spending is that it produces nothing that will improve our lives. "Beating plowshares into swords" is wasteful.
I hope that MoJo will keep their promise "to do our best to make it interesting". But more importantly, I hope they'll do their best to make it factual.
Follow the money
Who profits from each unnecessary purchase?
And who in Congress is receiving funds from those who stand to profit?
Follow the money, and shine the public spotlight on the greedy bastards who are responsible for corrupt decisions. Even if it is a company who insists that our troops get inferior gear, (Google Dragon skin body armor) it is because someone lines their pockets at the expense and safety of our troops and our country.
Follow the money.
Defense Budget
The Defense Budget of the US is the largest in the world, and of the top ten spenders, our budget is larger than the other 9 combined, and it's been that way for some time. It isn't going to change either. Some people think this is a victory, but it really isn't. Carl Von Clausewitz wrote that war was an extension of political policy. It's one of the few truths about armed conflicts, or at least most of them. Let's think about it for a minute or two - consider the past 60 years for a moment, excluding World War 2. About 5 years after the end of that conflict, we were involved in the Korean War, and then the Vietnamese War. Neither country posed a threat to the United States, nor would they have posed a threat to Japan's economic freedom as was the thought, Japan being the (then) largest trading partner with the US in Asia. The US was not made more free by our participation in these conflicts, but rather less so due to McCarthyism and also Nixon's habit of violating the Fourth Amendment rights of those he considered dangerous anti-war protesting celebrities (including John Lennon.) Into the 80s and 90s, we continued to spend massive amounts of money on buffering ourselves from the USSR, even after the CIA was fully aware that they were eventually going to collapse by the late 70s (Afghanistan plus their own nuclear buildup, and aid constantly given to North Korea and Cuba put them on the course to national bankruptcy before Brezhnev died, and the CIA knew it). Also, we sold arms to both Iran and Iraq in the Iran Iraq War in the 80s, and also to the Contras, a militant authoritarian group that was more willing to give US businesses economic concessions than the current government. In the 90s, we invaded Iraq for the first time, and did so again in 2003. (I'm leaving Afghanistan aside - hunting Al Qaeda is completely justifiable.) Now, given the narrative of history, it comes to the question of Cui Bono, or Who Benefits. Who benefited from these actions? Our security and liberty did not profit, but instead was hindered, as we were lied to by our government time and again, those in power violated laws with impunity, and now our Constitutional rights are hampered, negated, by the so called Patriot Act. Who has benefited? Congress, Wall Street, and contractors, the military industrial complex - they have made trillions. We start wars that have nothing to do with our national security, these actions are voted for, approved, and urged by our representatives who usually hail from the richest 10% of our nation. Our national debt has increased almost ten fold since Nixon left office, and our standard of living (for the middle class) has declined, health care is less affordable, and we are saddled with the check while those who created the debt pay less than their share - which should be total, only the richest 10% should pay for the wars they start - thanks to the regressive tax policies passed by Congress to give themselves a break, and then a raise. And then, the supreme injustice, we entreat, encourage, and in days past force the poor among us to fight and die in these conflicts our government has created.
War is an extension of politics. The politics are that the richest of this nation are those to be protected, and to impose a supremacy that we could never live up to, and then get those who would have no part in it to not only pay for it, but fight and die for justifications not their own, while the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Obama won't stop this anytime soon, and he wouldn't if he could. We do this in the name of freedom that is slowly being taken away, as now Congress authorizes unconstitutional invasions of privacy, and also seeks to legislate who we may or mayn't marry. A 50% reduction in military spending could send every American of age to college, or insure those who can't afford health coverage, or feed, clothe and house our nation's homeless - but instead, we give Blackwater, a company that has repeatedly shown disdain for life and law, and Haliburton billions, and then the very people who send their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters off to die for these wars, are entreated to pay for it, while those that started the conflict are given more and more tax breaks and their companies bailouts. That's what the defense budget pays for, and what we, the people, pay for. If we were serious about defending our liberty, the target that would yield actual results are not in Iraq, Iran, or North Korea - the largest obstacle to American Freedom is Washington DC.
He defeated a Pentagon weapons system singlehandedly !!!
Hey Rachel, you've simply got to read the biography of a warrior/hero who killed a weapons system, and got his mug onto the front cover of TIME magazine. BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram.
~eric.
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Wake UP!
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Every one of these "elected", LYING, STEALING, CHEATING MFs should be HANGED.
Our citizenry, both republican and democrat are brainwashed to believe anything the media feeds them (right or left media).
Democrats remind me of Iranians. They argue the exact opposite of what's truthful and logical then act like they are so fkn intelligent. All the while, the "elected" are LYING and STEALING, and CHEATING us of our treasure. Brainwashed.
Republicans remind me of rich little children who tell a compelling story they really believe only to find out the "elected" are LYING and STEALING, and CHEATING us of our treasure. Brainwashed.
It's too late for us to pull out of this nosedive folks. The media has "educated" too many. You can't talk sense to these "educated" idiots because they don't know anything besides what they were told on MSNBC or FOX. If you offer an opposing viewpoint they shut down their ability to hear. People with common sense are the minority now that the media has "educated" our countrymen. Good job!
Off the subject . . . I don't think so. Here's where it gets interesting (the punch line).
This debate is just another scam. They (congress, senate, president) get you all whipped up into a frenzy about something you care about then rob you blind while you're not looking. Look at the bills they are passing right now and see how much money they are giving away to the people who will give them millions when the get out of politics. It's a game. Doesn't anybody see it? They are taking everything they can with their left hand while we are watching their right hand. Our system political system is corrupt. By who you ask. By the SPECIAL INTEREST groups, POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES, and LOBBYISTS. Wake up democrats and republicans. It's not about you, it's about them.
Here's a new plan we should offer our "elected". Every year we, the American People, will pay you $1 million dollars tax free for your public service. If you abide by your oath you can serve up to 10 years. If you screw us 1 time, we hang you on the Capital steps. No SPECIAL INTEREST groups, no POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES, and no LOBBYISTS.
It's a runaway train now that the media has "educated" us. Common sense has vanished. Wake up!
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