Barney Frank Moves Against Military Pork
U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, Democrat from Massachusetts, is making waves by critically examining a part of the federal budget that has been traditionally treated as a sacred cow: The military budget.
Representative Frank recently released a two-part plan to cut the annual military budget by 160 billion dollars. In an editorial, Frank explained,
“Current plans call for us not only to spend hundreds of billions more in Iraq but to continue to spend even more over the next few years producing new weapons that might have been useful against the Soviet Union. Many of these weapons are technological marvels, but they have a central flaw: no conceivable enemy. It ought to be a requirement in spending all this money for a weapon that there be some need for it. In some cases we are developing weapons–in part because of nothing more than momentum–that lack not only a current military need but even a plausible use in any foreseeable future.
…If, beginning one year from now, we were to cut military spending by 25 percent from its projected levels, we would still be immeasurably stronger than any combination of nations with whom we might be engaged.
…The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy. I am working with a variety of thoughtful analysts to show how we can make very substantial cuts in the military budget without in any way diminishing the security we need.”
Read the full editorial at Representative Frank’s official congressional website.