Topeka Capital-Journal

April 7, 2006

A Miracle! Congress Questioned the Pentagon

By Jack Shanahan
MinutemanMedia.org

   Last month, a miracle occurred in Washington, D.C.  

   A miracle there, you say, in our nation's capital, that hotbed of cynics and paralysis? Yes, it's true. Here's what happened. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) introduced a bill that would transfer $60 billion in wasted Pentagon funding to stuff that really matters, like healthcare, schools, and job training.

   Wait a minute, you say, that's no miracle, just plain stupidity. Our nation is at war. Well, it turns out that the Afghan and Iraq wars are funded separately by Congress-not by the normal Pentagon budget. That's why President George Bush is frequently asking the House and Senate to pass "supplemental" funding for the war. This is the money that pays for the war effort.

   So that leaves the proposed $463 billion Pentagon budget to pay for all our nation's defense activities, outside of the Iraq and Afghan wars. For decades, defense analysts on both political parties have agreed that tens of billions of dollars are wasted by the Pentagon. Some, like the libertarian CATO Institute, have put the figure for defense waste at over $100 billion.

   But Woolsey chose to trim $60 billion, a conservative estimate of Pentagon waste. Most of this money would come from cutting obsolete Cold War weapons systems, like the F-22 fighter jet, designed to counter a Soviet plane that was never built.

   And here's the miracle. For $60 billion, our great nation could make dreams come true at home and abroad-without diminishing our ability to fight terrorists or to give our men and women in the military the best weapons they need.

   For $60 billion wasted on the Pentagon, we could:

• Provide health insurance for all uninsured kids at home.

• Feed 6 million kids who die of starvation abroad.

• Re-train a quarter million workers who've lost their jobs here.

• Re-build America's crumbling public schools over 10 years.

• Augment our country's Homeland Security Budget.

• Boost research into renewable energy to rid our dependence on foreign oil in ten years.

• Replace recent cuts in federal medical research.

   Under Woolsey's bill, we could do all that, and still have $5 billion left over to begin reducing our nation's debt.

   And, please sit down for this part of the miracle: We could do this every year. The savings would be annual. A bill like Woolsey's hasn't been introduced in Congress in my memory, and I've been following military issues in Congress for decades. Our country should be proud that Woolsey-and the 15 House members who co-sponsored the bill-had the nerve to stand up and say, essentially:     " America can no longer afford to pretend that the Pentagon is not a fiscal mess-because we are scared to be accused of being weak on defense."

   It's so rare for our political leaders to call for cutting Pentagon waste that Woolsey's bill has turned heads in the Washington establishment. They know Woolsey makes sense, especially now with the budget crunch in full force. But don't hold your breath waiting for many more of our political leaders to spontaneously endorse "Common Sense Budget Act." Most still see too many risks in challenging defense spending, and they also fear for jobs in their districts and retribution by defense contractors.

   That's why it's up to everyday Americans to be heard on this issue. We need to call on our leaders at the local level to endorse the Common Sense Budget Act. We need to tell our friends about all the great things our country could do by trimming just a tiny bit (less than 15 percent) from the Pentagon budget. Only the voice of the people will overpower the special interests that are benefiting from the status quo at the Pentagon.

   So, Woolsey has performed her miracle by introducing the Common Sense Budget Act. Now it's up to us to make another miracle happen-and organize a movement that will force Washington to hear and understand basic common sense when it comes to wasteful Pentagon spending.

Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan (USN, ret) formerly commanded the U.S. Second Fleet and heads the Military Advisory Committee of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities.