10 Steps to Fix the US Budget
5. Defense Spending
Defense Spending is loaded with pork, exuberance, and waste. Since Congress began auditing the Pentagon in 1996 over $8.5 trillion has gone unaccounted for. This money seems to have vanished into thin air. To put it in context, that’s enough money to run the entire bloated federal government for more than two years. The State Department is no stranger to waste, either. Last year they threw away $80 million on a location in Afghanistan for a base of operations, only to change their mind. Lavish embassies and posh dinners help to rack up the ever-growing defense budget.
But doesn’t defense make us safer? Actually, the US defenses are so over burdened with bureaucracy they are terribly inefficient. Even the 9/11 Commission cited burdensome bureaucracies as a reason for intelligence failures that led to the attacks. So, excessive defense spending actually makes us less safe. We cut could $100 Billion from Defense and we would still be at 2007 spending levels.
Annual Savings to US Taxpayers: $100 Billion
