Spending
Robert Gates Plays Budget Game
You've seen the headlines: U.S. Defense Department To Close Major Command, Slash Spending reads the one from the Voice of America. Slashing military spending? Is it possible? Have the days of military waste really come to an end? Don't bet on it. There is no slashing. The cuts are not cuts. The budget changes proposed by Secretary... »
Two Engines For A Single Engine Plane?
Imagine if, every time you made a significant purchase for your household, you bought a second item, just in case the first one didn't work out. You'd feel sure of always having what you need on hand... except for the money you'd need to keep your household out of serious debt. Until recently, however, this sort of redundancy was standard... »
Military Waste Breeds Poverty
Last week saw the introduction of a new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that no member of Congress ought to oppose... unless they're firmly resting in the palm of corrupt military contractors. The War Is Making You Poor Act, H.R. 5353, brings together weariness with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with anti-tax sentiment and the hunger for fiscal... »
Proposed Military Budget Increased, Not Decreased
It has been impossible to miss the story of how furious members of Congress are that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has "slashed" the Pentagon's budget. If you didn't actually look at the budget, but just relied upon the stories told by corporate journalists, whose parent companies often have a hand in military contracting, you would think that Gates had... »
Democrats Now Outpace Republicans in Wasteful Military Earmarks
For many years, those on the left have been able to make an easy presumption that, when it comes to military waste, the Republican Party is mostly to blame. For most of the time that George W. Bush was in office, the Republicans used the most hawkish language, and most stridently supported huge increases in military spending. Was this difference... »
Secret Military Spending Versus The Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts has long been a favorite target of free market libertarians who like to depict themselves as "fiscal hawks", ever-ready to confront government waste. Dan Kennedy, of the Business and Media Institute, for example, complains of President Obama "pouring billions of borrowed dollars" into the National Endowment for the Arts as an example of... »