Tag Archive
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... »
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... »
Military Tax Weighs Down American Economy
Don't like taxes? Many people don't, although taxes are the dues we pay for our democratic government. The proper question isn't really whether taxes are worth it. We all know that we need to pay for certain services we appreciate from our government. The question we citizens need to ask is whether our tax money is... »
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... »
$27.3 Billion Over Budget
Imagine if you were running a program that was being criticized as out-of-date and otherwise unnecessary. You might work extra hard to do a good job on the program, to prove its relevance. You might also examine your operations so that they would run under budget, to prove that you could be trusted to spend limited resources wisely. That's... »