Easy ideas for reducing the military budget

asterism

Congress != Progress
Jul 29, 2010
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Here are a few ideas I have for reducing the military budget:

1. Streamline the purchase and delivery of consumables to non-theater units. The military is a fighting force geared to blowing things up and killing people. In combat operations they do that very well. Back on base, they don't. They generate paperwork - LOTS AND LOTS of paperwork. However, the same system used to supply administrative consumables in combat is also used on base resulting in an increased expense.

2. Get rid of baseline budgeting, otherwise known as "use it or lose it." Most units have adaptable mission requirements which aren't reflected in their budgets. A unit that has just come off a deployment does not need the same amount of ammunition, vehicle service, food, and replacement equipment it needed while on deployment. However, the budget is the same and great efforts are made to spend that money to keep the unit "combat ready." Scrap this inefficient relic.

3. End the practice of Congressional Lobbying to keep unnecessary military bases due to the impact on local economies. We have too many military bases that operate simply because there has always been one there.

4. Streamline the equipment purchase practice. One of the reasons electronics and basic components are so expensive is because of the long convoluted processes used by the DoD to acquire them. It should not take 5 years and reams of proposals just to sell standard AA batteries to a base. Perhaps the units shouldn't even be buying them off the GSA schedule for twice the price Staples charges to ship them to the office.



Thoughts?
 
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Another one:

5. End the incentives to expand any area of authority. A Major in a staff and planning position has every incentive to increase the prestige of his office thereby making his boss look good, and when it's his turn he is the "expert" in the new way of doing things. I don't even think most of this is done deliberately, it's just built into the nature of a large bureaucracy.
 
I agree with pretty much all of it, except for #5. That really doesn't cost any money. It's not like the major is going to be able to increase unit manning levels to build his little empire.
 
I agree with pretty much all of it, except for #5. That really doesn't cost any money. It's not like the major is going to be able to increase unit manning levels to build his little empire.

I disagree. The constant shifting of plans and unit makeup certainly benefits the new commanders of those units and those plans are made by those next in line. Take the new concept of a Special Troops Brigade. The details of the makeup and requirements were written by Majors who were on staff assignments in between being Company Commanders and Battalion XO then Battalion CO in one of those units, then another staff job, and then Commander of this new type of unit since nobody else is qualified. At some point a General makes the determination that someone should try this new idea and who better to run those units than those who know it best?

Empires are built all the time and the more "elite" the unit, the easier it is to build them. It's not the best way to foster innovation and it's VERY expensive.
 

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