I take it you heard about the huge defense budget
that W proposes.
Oh, yes. It's about a 9% increase over the prior year. Where the average appropriations bill increase is about 3%. The 6% differential is from SDI, military pay increases and precision guided weapons. SDI is a flush down the toilet expenditure IMO, I'm fine with the pay increase....I'm probably ok with the precision guided weapons increment as long as that means it replaces the depleted inventory with perhaps a small plus up in inventory. On the other hand, DoD is closing down a US facility in Europe, that closure will likely affect negatively some US capabilities [at least in the short term] and add some military construction costs [not in the budget]. Not big numbers, just 10s of millions.
But Bush has brought business expertise to the military....we could see some exciting changes in the Army....
washingtonpost.com
Pentagon Official From Enron in Hot Seat
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 27, 2002; Page A08
Thomas E. White Jr. was installed last year as secretary of the Army in large part because the Bush administration wanted to bring business expertise to the military. As an 11-year executive with Enron Corp. and a 23-year Army veteran, White seemed to fit the bill.
Now, his corporate experience -- his role at Enron and a key subsidiary, Enron Energy Services (EES) -- is raising questions of possible conflicts of interest and of how much he knew about potential accounting lapses at Enron.
White, 58, left Enron Energy Services as vice chairman last May for the Pentagon post. In his first major speech as secretary, he vowed to step up privatization of utility services at military bases. EES, which made its money selling energy services before Enron declared bankruptcy Dec. 2, had been seeking to contract with the military.
Public Citizen, a liberal watchdog group, is charging that was a conflict of interest and wants White to testify before Congress on any potential conflicts of interest as well as his knowledge of Enron's business practices. In addition, Public Citizen would like White to more fully explain 29 meetings and phone calls with senior Enron officials that he participated in after he became Army secretary. White has said the conversations were with "personal friends" about "Enron's deteriorating financial conditions." A senior House Democrat, Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), also wants White to testify, about Enron and related issues...............
jttmab |
