$700 Toilet Seats, Or Why Does the Pentagon Need $419 Billion?
Let's do the time warp, folks-- a jump to the left, a step to the right... and back to the 1980s. Anyone remember the Pentagon buying $700 toilet seats? Overpriced hammers? There was quite a brouhaha at the time, which was rightly deserved. The military buildup of the 80s was exacerbated by the bloated bureaucracy of the Pentagon, its defense contractor scandals, and the ridiculousness of their procurement costs. After a dustup in the press, promises were made, speeches given, and things quieted down for a while.
Fast forward to the 1990s... again, the Pentagon is revealed to have not done anything or learned a whole lot from its earlier financial mishaps. The bureaucrats handed out 1.8 million credit cards to its workers, who then racked up a ton of bills on the gummint's dime-- or more accurately, your dime and mine. Some purchases included $500 in cosmetics from Mary Kay, $700 for CDs from Sam Goody, and one soldier who spent over $3,000 at a nightclub. I don't know about you, but I really don't want any past or future tax money I might hand over to the gummint going to Mary Kay or Sam Goody; I could do that myself, with more immediate and personal benefits, thank you.
Speed up to the present: despite the federal government continuing to hand out our money like candy to the brass at the Pentagon, at a cost to social services and domestic programs (for FY 2006 the official request is $419.3 billion, and that doesn't include the costs for the boondoggle in Iraq or our continued presence in Afghanistan, both of which are eating up millions, or other expenses; here's the official gummint description of defense activities to be requested for FY 2006), the Pentagon is still mis-spending money, and often extravagantly. When you go to Target or the local supermarket and buy ice cube trays, they're pretty cheap, right? A dollar, maybe two? For the Pentagon, it costs $20. I'd love to be an executive at the company that supplies our military with ice cube trays. This is the same gummint and Pentagon that has trouble ensuring all of its personnel has body armor over in Iraq, yet they can afford $20 ice cube trays? The same gummint that says we can't afford food stamps and educational services for the people who are right here, yet our military needs $20 ice cube trays? How about $29 coffee makers for $81?
Considering that our military budget is almost equal to the rest of the world's, and considering that our gummint is suggesting we can live without just about everything else for the sake of protecting the "homeland," I think it's incumbent on the Pentagon to get its fiscal house in order so that we can perhaps save some money for everything else we're supposed to live without, so that our soldiers can be fully protected when out in the field, and so that we have a gummint that actually tries to live within its means.
In the meantime, welcome back to the world of $700 toilet seats-- only now, it's $20 ice cube trays.
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
[The more things change, the more they remain the same.]
Fast forward to the 1990s... again, the Pentagon is revealed to have not done anything or learned a whole lot from its earlier financial mishaps. The bureaucrats handed out 1.8 million credit cards to its workers, who then racked up a ton of bills on the gummint's dime-- or more accurately, your dime and mine. Some purchases included $500 in cosmetics from Mary Kay, $700 for CDs from Sam Goody, and one soldier who spent over $3,000 at a nightclub. I don't know about you, but I really don't want any past or future tax money I might hand over to the gummint going to Mary Kay or Sam Goody; I could do that myself, with more immediate and personal benefits, thank you.
Speed up to the present: despite the federal government continuing to hand out our money like candy to the brass at the Pentagon, at a cost to social services and domestic programs (for FY 2006 the official request is $419.3 billion, and that doesn't include the costs for the boondoggle in Iraq or our continued presence in Afghanistan, both of which are eating up millions, or other expenses; here's the official gummint description of defense activities to be requested for FY 2006), the Pentagon is still mis-spending money, and often extravagantly. When you go to Target or the local supermarket and buy ice cube trays, they're pretty cheap, right? A dollar, maybe two? For the Pentagon, it costs $20. I'd love to be an executive at the company that supplies our military with ice cube trays. This is the same gummint and Pentagon that has trouble ensuring all of its personnel has body armor over in Iraq, yet they can afford $20 ice cube trays? The same gummint that says we can't afford food stamps and educational services for the people who are right here, yet our military needs $20 ice cube trays? How about $29 coffee makers for $81?
Considering that our military budget is almost equal to the rest of the world's, and considering that our gummint is suggesting we can live without just about everything else for the sake of protecting the "homeland," I think it's incumbent on the Pentagon to get its fiscal house in order so that we can perhaps save some money for everything else we're supposed to live without, so that our soldiers can be fully protected when out in the field, and so that we have a gummint that actually tries to live within its means.
In the meantime, welcome back to the world of $700 toilet seats-- only now, it's $20 ice cube trays.
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
[The more things change, the more they remain the same.]
posted by Mr. Sandman | 6:49 PM
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