The fact that our military wastes nearly fifty percent of its budget every year is undeniable. There is too little oversight as to the manner in which the brass casually spends money. This year’s bill is $612 billion and most of our politicians support this ridiculous sum of a partially wasteful expenditure.

In the recent GOP debate, only one candidate spoke out against superfluous defense spending; Rand Paul. The exchange happened when Marco Rubio suggested that he would increase the military’s budget to one-trillion dollars over ten years. Paul asked the junior Senator from Florida how he could consider himself a fiscal conservative, and give the defense department such a bloated budget, without suggesting how to pay for it.

“How is it conservative to add a trillion dollars in military expenditures?” Rand Paul asked his opponent at Tuesday’s Republican debate. “You cannot be a conservative if you’re going to keep promoting new programs that you’re not going to pay for.”

Rubio retorted swiftly: “We can’t even have an economy if we’re not safe.”

Rubio is the poster child for TEA Party hypocrisy. They would eliminate all social programs because of our nation’s rising deficit, but raise defense spending, much of it literally thrown away.

Take the case of the F-35, labeled the ultimate fighter jet. It has become a failure. In tests it lost to the antiquated F-16. It is does not reach expectations and the cost to the American people will by hundreds of billions of dollars.

In my late teens I worked for a defense contractor in ‘stores.’ The year was 1966. One of the first requisitions I was given to fill was for a single small screw. Without computers, we had to mark off every item issued on a ‘tab run.’ I was appalled when I read the page and saw the cost of this single screw; 38 dollars.

Truth was not the rule of the day during the GOP’s fourth debate, but Rand Paul had one shining moment.

Conservatives continue to have misguided values. Our government should care for its people first. We should prepare for peace; we’ll always be ready for war as proven by our nation’s history.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of Gage Skidmore

Author’s Page http://www.amazon.com/By-James-turnage/e/B00LOCJ2Z2