$1000 toilet seats where hardly an important part of defense costs. (Although they are funny examples of a large problem that does increase defense costs, and also non-military government costs)
They where also an issue that had little connection to Reagan.
They are rather a symptom of over-regulation, and other inefficiencies that have long been in the defense procurement process. You have complex specifications (whether or not they are needed for the item), and you have procedures that go through contractor bidding processes, rather than having someone go down to the local Home Depot and place an order for a thousand toilet seats.
The specs, the bidding requirements, the other parts of the process, create tons of paperwork, that costs money for both the military directly (DoD personnel dealing with their side of the issue), and indirectly (all the costs for the companies dealing with a ton of paperwork and insuring exacting specification compliance for a purchase that could otherwise be very simple.
What is still holding up today is all the tanks, artillery, aircraft, and ships that where bought. Some of it (F-15s and F-16s for example) is starting to get old or wear out, but we had a couple of decades use of the items, which not only gave us greater capability, but also allowed Clinton to reign in military spending since the military had the weapons they needed and he didn't need to buy nearly as much. |
