Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently announced the closing or reduction of more than 800 military installations.
The ostensible reason is to reduce costs, yet of course military budgets keep going up and up and up - but none of that gets to the soldiers, the medics, the engineers, or any of the other personnel on the ground; it all goes to defense contractors, to buy $50 million dollar jets and $3,000 screwdrivers. As of now, a US army private gets about $14,000 a year. I wonder how much they could raise pay for the price of one F-16?
But this is also a bit of electoral payback. Whiles bases are closing in Conneticut, Maine, and Washington DC, they'll be opening in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama - not to mention Texas. Though there is some bipartisanship in who suffers from this:
Job Losses:
CT: Liberman (D) -6496
ME: Snowe (R) -6938 (many actually in NH)
MO: Talent (R) -3679
MS: Lott (R) -1678
ND Conrad (D) -2645
NM Bingaman (D) -2849
PA Santorum (R) -1878
VA Allen (R) -1574
Let the games begin.
4 comments:
'As of now, a US army private gets about $14,000 a year.'
This is just E-1 base pay. There is a lot more that comes along with it (free housing, health care, food, etc). No one stays a boot private for very long. For a first job out of high school with no college, it's actually a pretty good deal. It's still a volunteer force, remember.
Fine, but one must still admit that there is tremendous waste and corruption involved in our armed forces. Surely some kind of major shake-up is needed?
I could agree with that, but I would extend it to the entire government, not just DoD.
You know, I think I could go for one of those $3,000 screwdrivers. I bet they're mighty tasty.
As for the base closings... I would think it would make more sense to close bases that are far away first (say, Germany and South Korea for starters). Then, if we need to cut down bases here so be it.
And yes, Loyal, the military wastes money. As Tran Sient pointed out, that's what the government does. Take away accountability and you're left with really big, unbalanced budgets.
I'll join you on the military shake-up when we shake-down the rest of the federal government. You can take Defense, and I'll eliminate Education and that dratted NEA. And homeland security too.
Say, this shake-up thing sounds good. You may be on to something.
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