Posted on 11/16/2012 5:03:19 AM PST by IbJensen
Following his office’s publishing of his annual Wastebook last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has now released another oversight report, this one exploring waste and “non-defense” spending in the Department of Defense (DOD), entitled the “Department of Everything.”
In his Wastebook Coburn concluded that “all the outrageous and wasteful contents of this report were made possible by either the action or lack of action of Congress, earning it the well-deserved but unwanted distinction as the biggest waste of taxpayer money in 2012.” Right behind the Congress, however, is the Department of Defense, which has been spending taxpayer monies on projects, programs, and plans not related to the DOD’s primary function: defending the Republic.
Although he thinks potential savings could exceed $70 billion over the next 10 years if all of his suggestions were implemented, he also says that his report has just skimmed the surface, and savings could be much larger. He stated,
I prepared this report because the American people expect the Pentagon’s $600 billion annual budget to go toward our nation’s defense.
That isn't happening. Billions of defense dollars are being spent on programs and missions that have little or nothing to do with national security, or are already being performed by other government agencies. Spending more on grocery stores than guns doesn’t make any sense. And using defense dollars to run microbreweries, study Twitter slang, create beef jerky, or examine Star Trek does nothing to defend our nation.
These are actual programs he and his staff uncovered by asking three simple questions:
• Does the mission of this program or agency directly relate to the mission of the Department of Defense?
• Does another federal agency or government or private entity already provide the services provided by this program or agency?
• Could these resources be better targeted towards higher priority defense needs, such as taking care of troops on the front lines or reducing our $16 trillion national debt?
What he and his staff found was merely a smattering, a skimming, a “starting point for reviewing Pentagon spending that is unnecessary, wasteful or simply not related to defense.” He calls this wasteful spending a “rising tide of the red [ink] menace.” Here is some of what they uncovered:
$6 billion spent on non-military research and development. These are research projects that have little or nothing to do with national defense, according to the report.
$15.2 billion spent on education. These include programs to educate children of military families in the US, as well as programs that duplicate the work of the Department of Education and local school districts. It also includes college funding for military members on active duty and duplicates the work of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
$700 million spent on developing “alternative energy.” This includes duplicative and unnecessary alternative energy research being done by the Department of Energy.
$9 billion spent on supporting stateside grocery stores. This includes Pentagon-run grocery stores here in the United States.
$37 billion spent on “overhead, support and supply service” unrelated to the DOD’s primary purpose. This includes more than 300,000 members of the military service performing civilian-type jobs.
For example, the DOD invested part of its budget in more than 100 renewable energy-related projects in 2010, even more than the Department of Energy itself, and with similar results: “Many of these DOD renewable energy projects were so poorly planned, they failed to be cost effective or even produce [any] power, wasting millions of national security dollars.”
The DOD duplicated work done by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), doing research “into the very same diseases already being studied by [them].”
The DOD also duplicated work done by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). From the report:
For example, the Navy recently funded research examining what the behavior of fish can teach us about democracy while also developing an app to alert iPhone users when the best time is to take a coffee break.
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded a study last year examining how to make it easier to produce silk from wild [silkmoth] cocoons in Africa and South America.
Both the Navy and the Air Force funded a study that concluded people in New York use different jargon on Twitter than those living in California.
And the DOD is willing to share its “expertise” in naming streams, mountains, hills, and plains across the country. Officials from the department are serving on the Board of Geographic Names, with one of them serving as vice-chairman.
It also is making sure that local school children are getting their fruits and vegetables:
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has provided fresh fruits and vegetables to local schools in coordination with the Department of Agriculture through a program called DOD Fresh for nearly twenty years, spending more than $66 million in Fiscal Year 2010 [alone].
And the DOD sponsored a “Grill It Safe” cooking video featuring two “Grill” sergeants illustrating their own special “delicious recipes suitable for cooking outdoors.”
It goes on: The DOD owns and operates its own microbreweries and liquor stores and sponsors motivational talks such as “The Everest Challenge” where outside speakers bring messages “about how to overcome the obstacles in life.” There’s a “ropes” course designed to foster “communication, trust and social/emotional learning skills,” and “Adventure Dynamics,” a one-day class at Camp Murray which “fosters the development and understanding of three important human skills: commitment, self-confidence and teamwork.”
While it may be argued that such training might be helpful in some way for members of the military, these courses were for state and local police officers. Said the report: “It is not clear why the Department of Defense should use its resources to pay for…non-military local law enforcement.”
As outrageous some of these programs may be, what’s particularly annoying is that, even if each of these programs were reined in or eliminated altogether, the savings would only amount to about one percent of the DOD’s budget. Who knows what else could be cut if empire-building wars were ended and troop deployments (still in place 68 years after the end of the Second World War) were returned home? As recently as the year 2000, the DOD budget was half what it is today. Bringing it back into line would free up $300 billion annually to apply against the national debt.
Maybe Coburn’s report will begin the conversation about just what the DOD’s role ought to be.
There are very few jobs that military personnel can't perform. Give me an hour or two and I'll come up with one. Clean out the military of civilians and train, if necessary, the wounded combat veterans and place them in administrative positions.
The grocery store part refers to commisaries which many Soldiers do utilize, especially on overseas bases, since it allows them to buy American food and not to have to go off base, and in remote bases like Fort Irwin, 40 minutes away from the nearest and world’s worst Wal Mart.
Also, regarding the beef jerkey part. It sounds like regular research and development into field food (MREs and the like). That actually sounds like an interesting way to get protien rich jerkey and package it for our guys in the field. That being said of course there are plenty of places to cut waste in the DOD (how about combat pay for guys in Kuwait and Kyrgyzstan for starters?).
You can take the commissary from my cold, dead fingers. The rest of it can go.
Oh, and Soldiers performing civilian office type jobs? It’s called staff work. It happens everywhere. Very, very few “trigger pullers”. Anymore I’m handier with Powerpoint than I am with a machine gun.
Greta talked about this last night. Lots of folks coming on to defend Comissaries. Also, anyone remember when the Exchange actually had things for cheap? Who was it that made them have the same prices as off base competetors?
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2012/11/15/beef-jerky-and-defense-spending-you-wont-believe-this/
The DOD is no better than the USDA, a catch-all for every worthless liberal project that can be hidden in the bloated budgets of these agencies. The USDA spends less than 205 on the Makers of crops in disaster payments etc. The rest is spent on the Takers, in the booming food stamp give-away, free school lunch programs, WIC etc.
Does the building of mosques come out of the DOD budget? Inquiring minds want to know.
205 should be 20% : ( cold fingers trying to type this AM)
I know of a person working for the military, he’s a GS-12 making well about $40 per hour where his employer encourages all to go to the gym on a regular basis to work out on paid time.
I knew another person working for the national park service that brought her personal horse into the park stables and had a farrier work on the horse on paid government time.
When I joined the army in the late 60’s, I knew some civilian workers. They were very dedicated, considered themselves civil servants and knew they were taxpayer funded and were very dedicated.
In talking to todays civil service worker, they think there is an endless supply of federal money and see no connection to the guy on the street. They are worried about their rights as government employees more than doing a job well done.
I suspect many of these categories are similarly misleading. Not that there is NO waste in DoD: far from it. But basic research sponsored by DARPA, for example, might never lead to a new weapon or a magical generator for field use, but we won’t know unless we try. And don’t forget: the DoD budget is traditionally the place where congressmen stuff their favorite pork, without consulting DoD.
TC
Yeah, it's the same price everywhere else. No sales tax, though, so there's that.
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded a study last year examining how to make it easier to produce silk from wild [silkmoth] cocoons in Africa and South America.
Silk is a valuable material. Yes, there are synthetic replacements, but they might not be as available in a real crisis.
Both the Navy and the Air Force funded a study that concluded people in New York use different jargon on Twitter than those living in California.
So... Coburn can't figure out why it might be useful to passively geo-locate people posting Twitter messages? Perhaps someone from SIGINT could sit him down and explain it using small words.
And the DOD is willing to share its “expertise” in naming streams, mountains, hills, and plains across the country. Officials from the department are serving on the Board of Geographic Names, with one of them serving as vice-chairman.
Why would the military have any interest in making sure that geographic locations are given understandable and unambiguous names? It's not like it's that important that they send people to the right place. /sarc
Said the report: “It is not clear why the Department of Defense should use its resources to pay for…non-military local law enforcement [courses].”
Um... because both of these groups face some of the same leadership challenges address by these courses?
I thought Coburn was a good guy, but some of this report is, frankly, dangerous. Coburn never served in the military and some of this second-guessing is foolish. This report also comes out at a time when liberals are chomping at the bit to slash the military budget. Coburn couldn't have given them a better gift.
I recall that John (He served in Viet Nam, you know.) Kerry tucked $20 million in the DOD budget for some Kennedy memorial.
You are correct. Things that congresscritters or the executive branch can’t get done elsewhere are hidden in the DOD budget. I personally watched in amazement as the Navy built, equipped, and completely staffed an unwanted 250 hospital in New Orleans in 1976 and then close it down a few months later because there was no need for it. They needed funding for a dozen new Naval Hospitals and Congressman Hebert, in his capacity as House Armed Services Committee Chairman, held funding for those hospitals hostage until they agreed to give him one in his home state.
Current civil servant here, retired military also. I have a 6 by 6 cubical that I now call “home.” Not a desk, but a work station. No drawers in it, but a small file cabinet on wheels. I sit at the back of the cube farm, so if someone wants to come and visit they have to walk back here just to see if I am home as the cube walls block their view. Is it efficient? Not sure, but I fondly remember the days of large open offices where people talked, knew what their neighbor was doing so in a pinch they could cover for them. Oh well, in a couple of years I join the retired ranks.
does this include all them chevy volts they bought at obama’s behest?
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