Army: We have plenty of tanks. Congress: No You Don't

[Fandango]

I didn't say they were. But the Military doesn't need more tanks. They will just park them and let them age. So, since we won't stop feeding the military industrial machine, and those people need to work to make things for the military, have them MAKE things for the military that they actually need and will use.

Retool, make something else. It isn't cheap, and if these companies aren't agile enough to make the transition, they don't deserve to make the money anyway.

In large part I agree with this. Military spending is completely and absurdly out of control. It has been bankrupting our country for a years - building weapons we don't need, maintaining military bases that are no longer of strategic importance, fighting immoral and needless wars, etc. But if the assumption is that we need to spend $300 billion per year with these contractors/manufacturers can we at least build things that are helpful to our future.

[Nunchuckz]

In large part I agree with this. Military spending is completely and absurdly out of control. It has been bankrupting our country for a years - building weapons we don't need, maintaining military bases that are no longer of strategic importance, fighting immoral and needless wars, etc. But if the assumption is that we need to spend $300 billion per year with these contractors/manufacturers can we at least build things that are helpful to our future.

How about we use that money for our country's infrastructure, high speed rail and free wireless internets? Use that money to make our nation super competitive in green energy (compete with China) and beef up our eduational system?

Schools not bombs
Roads not tanks
information not bullets

The question is what are we afraid of? Who is going to invade the US and take what we have?

Our military model is a mess.

[TheSeyMonsta]

and beef up our eduational system?

LOL....Couldnt resist....:)

[PatsFan2003]

If you pray back the curtain im certain youll find these tanks are made in some of these politicians backyards and they want yo keep there donors happy. I saw it a ton. You really wanna see waste? Wait till march time frame when the military new year begins. Everyone spends like crazy to keep the dollars high so thier budget doesnt get cut the next year. One base i was at had huge projector tvs that were placed in the walls but never installed becuase it was an end of the year purchase and they needed to spend 100k in a month... It was angering.

The first rule of any bureaucracy is to spend all of your allocated budget. You use it or lose it. If they don't spend it, it will go to those Welfare Moms.

[Payton34]

People often fail to account for the economic impact that drastically reducing the volume of tanks and bombs this country builds would have.

For the past several decades, we've been replacing commercial production with munitions building. We're primarily a military based economy now, like it or not.

This fact goes for every sector, not just military...

[PsychoViking]

Good news....Mittens wants 15 more ships/subs. Yay.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/1...ogle_news_blog

[rjohmit]

You are all idiots and sheep...obviously the Army isn't aware of the government's plan to enslave/kill us all. When Order 66 is given, the Army will wish they had those tanks.

[Wounded Bear]

How about we use that money for our country's infrastructure, high speed rail and free wireless internets? Use that money to make our nation super competitive in green energy (compete with China) and beef up our eduational system?

.

You mean just like Eisenhower, a Republican, did in the '50's?

He also instituted a user tax (which would be called a "gas tax") for the great highway system we built, which was, at the time, the envy of the world.

[DonMan]

Our government is so dysfunctional we'll probably still be buying tanks even after there isn't any oil left to operate them.

[rjohmit]

Our government is so dysfunctional we'll probably still be buying tanks even after there isn't any oil left to operate them.

Yeah....they'll just get some scientists and engineers to figure out how to make them run on our blood. =P

[Superbelt]

Pureed sea lions and spotted owls make an amazingly potent fuel replacement. Or so I hear.

[Hi Bob]

As a former employee of several major defense contractors I can say unequivocally that the "use it or loose it" attitude is absolutely rampant and it actually starts in the proposal phase. RFP's that are full of fluff and BS just to provide a landing spot for future work w/o having to compete it (as well as having duplicate scope on multiple contracts to ensure you can pick up and move work if needed - again without competition).

It's the same story with DoD employees - they've got a ridiculous amount of excess. I had a Program Director on the gov't side who would literally funnel money from end user agencies meant for us to continue work, and use it to pay for idle or under-worked gov't employees, until they had something come along to keep them busy. We'd then be instructed to make up for it by charging our time to other end user accounts who had surplus funds (which is illegal). Oh, and they wanted us to track all the cross charging off line against imaginary budgets and report to them constantly so they could keep their own books straight (since they couldn't find a competent financial analyst on their side to do it).

Of course we'd constantly receive threats from him that he'd terminate us and give the work to a competitor if we couldn't handle the mess and it impacted his bonus (yes - very private sector-ish incentive model).

One of the primary reasons I said **** it and decided to become a stay at home dad until my little ones start school.

[Superbelt]

It's the same story with DoD employees - they've got a ridiculous amount of excess. I had a Program Director on the gov't side who would literally funnel money from end user agencies meant for us to continue work, and use it to pay for idle or under-worked gov't employees, until they had something come along to keep them busy. We'd then be instructed to make up for it by charging our time to other end user accounts who had surplus funds (which is illegal).

This happens across all industries. Every engineering firm I and my wife had worked for did this exact thing. If you don't have enough money in one contract to finish the work (usually because management underbid to earn the contract), fake bill to a contract that is more lucrative and has hours left over. Those usually were the government contracts that were farmed for hours.