Here’s a list of war toys soon to be part of the 1993 shop-till-we-drop spree up on the Hill-a $27 billion pork-barrel ripoff.
$750 million for the Osprey, an exotic new hybrid airplane/chopper, designed to carry whatever Marines are left after the corps is cut 25 percent (partly to pay for such fat-city frills).
$2.7 billion for the highly visible B-2 bomber to strike the now invisible Soviet Union. Even " Bomb them back to the Stone Age" Curtis LeMay would shoot down this sky lemon.
$4.3 billion for Star Wars laser beams to melt incoming missiles from yet-to-be-built enemy silos. Dr. Strangelove still haunts the E-Ring at the Pentagon.
$2.2 billion for the trouble-prone C-17 transport jet which is far more costly and carries no more troops than current models that work. It has been more than 30 years since Ike warned the nation about the military-industrial complex. The C-17 once again rubs it in our faces.
$15 billion for a new aircraft carrier, four new destroyers, a quiver full of new missiles. Not to mention the new F-22 fighter to outfly a grounded bogeyman.
$2 billion for the Seawolf submarine (funded in the 1992 budget) to counter a Soviet sub threat that sank with the “evil empire.” Militarily, this makes as much sense as putting bayonets on duffel bags.
Our armed forces got by perfectly well without this gear during the gulf war (our biggest fight since Vietnam). None of it is likely to be used against anyone remotely threatening today or for the next two decades. Even the Pentagon wants to scrub some of these programs. Congress is backing this expenditure because too many members think of their country only as the sum of its special interests. What counts in this game are defense jobs for their states and their districts, local payrolls and votes, not the national economic security.
Treating defense as a jobs program is sheer madness. Defense jobs won’t rebuild America. Missiles sitting in silos and aircraft parked on runways don’t create jobs. Money spent in the private sector puts a lot more people to work. Any American family that handled its budget the way our lawmakers do would end up in the poorhouse. The United States owes $4 trillion. If the debt and the interest keep climbing at similar rates, by fiscal year 1997, the interest alone will be roughly $263 billion annually. This is dead money. Lost forever. It can’t be used to educate our kids. It can’t be used to help the institutions that produce values and build a great citizenry. The National Association of Realtors says that $263 billion could build about 2 million homes each year. The Department of Education says it could build more than 30,500 high schools. The National Council of Churches says it could build more than 100,000 churches.
A small courageous minority-a platoon or two-of Warren Rudmans, Bob Kerreys and Andy Irelands-do put country before party and career. Sadly, many (like Rudman and Ireland) are leaving Congress in disgust. The others are at battalion strength. Will these deceivers look their grandchildren in the eye and say “I bankrupted America and mortgaged your future. I am responsible for turning the country into a third-rate power”?
People like Patrick Henry or Betsy Ross would have had the guts to stand up and shout: “Enough is enough. America is broke. We must get our fiscal house in order. Citizens, I’m going to cut your entitlements and I don’t give a damn if you don’t re-elect me. Federal departments, you will be ruthlessly cut back. Pentagon and defense contractors, the party is over. Lobbyists and PACs, don’t darken my door. I have posted snipers on the dome to blow you slimy bastards away. All of you in Congress, listen up: a country whose leaders lack moral courage will not remain strong nor free.”
The 1980s was a decade of overspending and greed. But the 1990s will be a decade of reckoning. Americans are no fools. They know what’s going on and they want this spending spree to end. They want Congress to put country before district and state. Let’s hope the many new faces sure to appear in the 103d Congress will show more moral courage–and a better sense about money.
