The Washington Times

Robert Scales bemoans what he sees as the hollowing out of U.S. military capabilities ("The military budget pie," Op-Ed, yesterday). One reason the Army's budget is constrained is because of the money we're wasting on Cold War-era weapons systems such as the F-22 and Virginia class submarine.

Heaping more pork on the half of the budget pie that constitutes the Pentagon budget is not going to make us safer as a nation. Defense spending as a percentage of gross domestic product has decreased because of dramatic economic growth in the United States. Arguing for higher levels of defense spending in terms of GDP just for the sake of spending more isn't sensible.

Our new defense secretary and Congress should assess the billions wasted annually on weapons programs that clearly are inappropriate for the current defense environment.

This year should be spent stamping out the pork-barrel spending that supports defense industry overcapacity and bloated Pentagon budgets. However, the government won't put an end to pork-barrel spending as long as the Iron Triangle of the military, industry and Congress is permitted to manipulate the political process and maintain its stranglehold on our federal budget priorities.

BEN COHEN
President
Business Leaders for
Sensible Priorities