The left would rather cut Army brigade combat teams, Navy combat ships, Air Force fighter squadrons as opposed to cutting money wasted on non military projects like for their buddies/cronies in alternative energy and academia.
Department of Defense (DOD) is responsible for protecting national security and providing military forces to deter war, yet it blows tens of billions of dollars on preposterous things unrelated to its mission.
A variety of unimaginable examples are featured in a baffling report (“Department of Everything”) published this month by a Republican U.S. Senator, who asserts the Pentagon could easily save around $70 billion over ten years without cutting any Army brigade combat teams, Navy combat ships or Air Force fighter squadrons. It could be done simply by getting rid of the waste, according to the findings.
That’s because the DOD has a monstrous $629 billion annual budget and a chunk goes to dubious projects that are tough to justify as defense expenses. For instance, the senator’s probe reveals that the Pentagon funded $6 billion in studies that have little or nothing to do with national defense or medical needs related to military service.
Here is an example of where defense dollars are going; an anthropologist at a public California university got $681,387 to examine whether men holding pistols are viewed as taller, stronger and more masculine than those wielding objects such as saws, paint brushes and caulking guns. For the record, guys with guns do in fact appear bigger, stronger and more masculine, the study found.
Another good one involves fish. For $5.2 million researchers at an Ivy League university found that golden shiner fish could show the nation how to overcome political polarization and promote democracy. The Office of Naval Research spent $450,000 to study how babies interact with robots. The DOD also burned $700 million on “duplicative and unnecessary alternative energy” projects and $1.5 million to create its own brand of beef jerky treats…….
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More than $67.9 billion in savings could be produced from the Pentagon budget over the next decade by addressing just these five sides of the Pentagon that have little to do with defense:
little or nothing to do with national defense or medical needs related to military
service ($6 billion).
Secondary Schools (DDESS) that educates children of military families here in the
United States and end the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
73(STEM) programs that duplicate the work of the Department of Education and
local school districts
- ($10.7 billion). Reform the Department of Defense Tuition
Assistance Program which provides college funding for military members on
active duty and duplicates benefits provided by the Department of Veterans
Affairs ($4.5 billion).
Department of Defense ($700 million).
- Grocery Stores. Provide a pay increase to all military members and allow their
families to shop wherever they choose by ending subsidies to Pentagon-run
grocery stores and shopping centers. ($9 billion).
- Support and Supply Services. Reclassify one-fourth of military members
performing civilian-type job functions and reducing general and flag officers to
Cold War levels. ($37 billion).