Webb: Cut Defense Spending, Too
by mcjoan
Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 03:06:04 PM PST
Former Navy secretary and current Senator Jim Webb, who is also on the Armed Services Committee, adds his voice to the chorus of people calling for the defense budget to be included in a spending freeze.
Saying that there’s no reason military spending should be “sacrosanct,” Webb urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen to “take a hard look at programs that don’t produce a clear bottom line.”
Webb shot out three programs. First, he questioned the wisdom of giving $60 million to Blackwater to train sailors in self-defense on board ships — or, as Webb put it, “how to do their job.” He attacked sending military officers to defense think tanks to serve as fellows, specifically calling out the well-connected Center for a New American Security, which has sent a lot of its own analysts to the Obama State and Defense Departments. “The American taxpayer is funding think tanks that don’t really produce any added value to the Department of Defense,” Webb said. Finally, Webb called out the Pentagon’s “mentorship” program — recently the subject of a USA Today investigative report — that basically allows retired officers who serve in many cases on defense contractor boards to still get Pentagon cash for advising active-duty officers.
If there's one place taxpayer funding should be cut off, it's to Blackwater, with KBR running an awfully close second. Defense contractor welfare is so deeply entrenched in our government that breaking that hold will be nigh on impossible. A voice of authority like Webb's, however, will at least help in starting to chip away at it |
