As Congress prepares to consider the annual Department of Defense authorization bill and other military spending legislation totaling more than $700 billion, the need for more aggressive scrutiny is abundantly clear.At a time when we have a $9.3 trillion national debt and large unmet social needs, oversight of these enormous and ever-increasing sums has failed to keep up.
The Pentagon’s procurement and budgeting processes are rife with problems.For example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified $295 billion in cost overruns on 72 major weapons systems, even as the Pentagon can’t balance its books or keep track of its vast inventory. These problems can lead to bizarre results, such as the fact that the Pentagon has hundreds of millions of dollars in spare parts now on order that are already marked for disposal. Despite huge cost overruns, major contractors have received $8 billion in performance bonuses that have been paid out regardless of the results of their work.These abuses of the public trust – and the public purse – are simply unacceptable.
These are complex problems that will require multi-faceted solutions. A good place to start would be by slowing down the “revolving door” that allows high level Pentagon bureaucrats and military officers to go to work for major defense contractors.
The problems with the revolving door are two-fold. First, officials looking forward to employment in the arms industry may favor certain companies in hopes of getting lucrative job offers after leaving government service.Second, once they have moved into the private sector, these former government employees can use their specialized knowledge and inside contacts to give an unfair advantage to their new employer.
These are far from abstract problems. In one high profile case, Darleen Druyun, a senior Air Force contracting official, secured jobs with the Boeing Corporation for herself, her daughter, and her son-in-law at the same time that she was in charge of negotiating a $20 billion lease deal with the company.Both Ms. Druyun and Boeing’s Chief Financial Officer pled guilty to fraud charges and served jail time as a result.
The Boeing scandal was uncovered in time to save the taxpayers from a corrupt employment deal, but how many other scandals go undetected? In a study released this week, the GAO reported that as of 2006, 2,435 former generals, admirals, procurement officials and senior civilian leaders in the Pentagon were working in the defense industry. The GAO believes that more than 400 of these were working on defense contracts related to their former agencies, but under current reporting requirements, there is no way to tell whether these individuals have conflicts of interest. That is because neither the contractors nor the Pentagon are required to report on post-government employment of key military and civilian government personnel.
The restrictions that do exist to curb the influence of the revolving door are riddled with loopholes. The general thrust of the regulations is to prevent senior Pentagon officials and personnel involved in weapons acquisition from lobbying their former agencies for one to two years after they leave the government.That doesn’t mean they can’t work “behind the scenes” to help their new employers get a leg up on weapons contracts, nor does it prevent them from lobbying Congress. Without any real reporting requirements, how are government regulators going to detect conflicts of interest in the first place?
A related problem is the growing use of private contractors to carry out government functions such as developing contract requirements, advising on award fees for other contractors, and interpreting regulations. At over two-thirds of defense agencies surveyed by the GAO, there were more private contractor employees involved in key offices than there were government employees. Other than restrictions on bribery and criminal fraud, these private contractors are not covered by conflict-of-interest statutes that apply to government employees.A contractor employee can even have a personal financial stake in a decision that he or she is helping the government to make without running afoul of any current law or regulation.
If we are ever going to get a handle on waste in Pentagon contracting, we need to beef up revolving-door laws – including new requirements for reporting of post-government employment. At a minimum, we need to subject private contractors involved in basic Pentagon decision making to the same standards that apply to government employees.Otherwise, the Pentagon will continue to misspend untold billions of dollars that could have been applied to urgent national priorities.
Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, serves on the Senate Budget Committee. William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation.
Bernie Sanders is the independent U.S. Senator from Vermont. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. He is a member of the Senate's Budget, Veterans, Environment, Energy, and H.E.L.P. (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) committees.
I don't want even one more dime of MY MONEY going to this lying filth. We wouldn't have any enemies if they would stop parading around the world invading other countries.
No money to fix the US infrastructure, but plenty to fight Israels' enemies for them. ENOUGH! Not with MY MONEY YOU DON"T!
by
Roger Thomas (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 44 comments)
on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 1:41:07 PM
Another result of the close “collaboration” between business and government in Italy was “a continual interchange of personnel between the . . . civil service and private business.”[29] Because of this “revolving door” between business and government, Mussolini had “created a state within the state to serve private interests which are not always in harmony with the general interests of the nation.”[30]
Mussolini’s “revolving door” swung far and wide:
Signor Caiano, one of Mussolini’s most trusted advisers, was an officer in the Royal Navy before and during the war; when the war was over, he joined the Orlando Shipbuilding Company; in October 1922, he entered Mussolini’s cabinet, and the subsidies for naval construction and the merchant marine came under the control of his department. General Cavallero, at the close of the war, left the army and entered the Pirelli Rubber Company . . . ; in 1925 he became undersecretary at the Ministry of War; in 1930 he left the Ministry of War, and entered the service of the Ansaldo armament firm. Among the directors of the big . . . companies in Italy, retired generals and generals on active service became very numerous after the advent of Fascism.[31]
Such practices are now so common in the United States – especially in the defense industries – that it hardly needs further comment.
(snip)
There's no way to make government work better. As long as there's big government there will be big corruption.
by
Darren Wolfe (5 articles, 157 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 704 comments)
on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 7:40:17 PM
I thought you’d like to check out the political allegory of mine that I recently found a literary agent for. It’s a story set in the context of a teacher discussing with his class all of the evidence that the Bush administration is as corrupt as it is incompetent; and how to rectify the Constitutional crisis we face. It’s couched in a discussion about the urgent need to stop abusing Mother Nature. I wrote in 3 dozen celebrities to play the students, so it’s very funny despite how infuriating it is. You can read it at www.stoplittering.com/theswitch.htmand, yes, StopLittering.com is my site.
And enjoy this poem of mine…
If Jesus Were Alive Today
If Jesus were alive today, He'd surely feel despair, Amidst a world of plenty, And a bounty that's not shared.
If Jesus were alive today, He wouldn't understand, The system of oppression, And how so few give a damn.
If Jesus were alive today, He'd certainly be distraught, Because the animals of Earth, Are not treated as they ought.
If Jesus were alive today, His eyes would have some tears, And based on all the evidence, I'd say he was sincere.
If Jesus were alive today, He'd have to jump and shout, To wake us from our slumber: "THE FUTURE IS IN DOUBT!!"
If Jesus were alive today, You know he'd try in vain, To save us from each other... (No doubt he'd go insane.)
If Jesus were alive today, I expect we'd be rebuked; It is likely he'd remark: "Knock it off before I puke."
If Jesus were alive today, No way he'd vote for Bush; To those who say he should, He'd say,"Kiss my tush!"
If Jesus were alive today, With Bushies he'd be pissed: "Ignorance is no defence! Otherwise, get yourself a psychiatrist."
If Jesus were alive today, He'd put John Kerry in his place, As the world's lamest candidate: "Why'd they even let that Jackass race?!"
If Jesus were alive today, Boy, would Congress get a smack, For practically everything they've done, Especially for trusting Jr. with Iraq.
If Jesus were alive today, He'd say the media was to blame: "Don't think I haven't noticed, That you people have no shame."
If Jesus were alive today, The Democrats he would scorn, For keeping out Wes Clark: "Was it yesterday these fools were born?!"
If Jesus were alive today, His sense of humor would be great.
Too wry, perhaps, for some,
But that’s how he’d get laid.
If Jesus were alive today, He'd be branded as a cynic, Because no one wants to hear, If it's raining at their picnic.
If Jesus were alive today, He'd force us all to see, That hope and love are the answer, To who we're supposed to be.
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Jay Foster (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 23 comments)
on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 8:39:57 PM
I am one of your constituents, and I appreciate the time and effort you expend on behalf of a more progressive agenda in Congress. I know that it must be frustrating for you to be in the minority on many issues. Although I am usually cynical, I still hope that the next Congress is an improvement on the current Congress, which failed even to attempt to live up to the campaign rhetoric of 2006.
I think that most of our nation's problems will never be addressed seriously until we have legislation to provide real campaign finance reform (please refer to my article printed on OpEdNews.com on May 2, 2008) and legislation to restore integrity and transparency to our system of elections. Keep up your good work.
by
Blaine Kinsey (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 33 comments)
on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 1:57:06 PM
Why would any country spend that much on "defense?"
No other country spends even a tenth of that. Fear has been used to create a monster that seemingly cannot be stopped.
Just think of all the things we could do with say $600 billion of that $700 billion. The US might even be able to meet people's needs for health care, education, infrastructure repair, and subsidize alternative energy development to boot.
But there's no chance of that happening. Why? Because the system is not rational; it is established; it is organized; money talks, i.e. the money that "defense" contractors and the military throw around. At very least they'll demand as much money as they've already gained; it's called bureaucratic inertia and vested interests.
In a rational world the US would not have bases in 100+ countries; would not be occupying Iraq; would not be planning to bomb, bomb Iran; would be spending its money wisely on enabling its people to be more productive, not on useless engines of destruction that only create more violence all over the world.
But this is not a rational world.
by
Douglas Smyth (20 articles, 5 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 62 comments)
on Friday, June 27, 2008 at 9:21:52 AM
6 comments
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