Defense Spending

Floor Speech

DEFENSE SPENDING -- (Senate - September 12, 2008)

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, this country has a $9.7 trillion national debt. In addition, we obviously have enormous unmet infrastructure needs and social needs. Every American who drives on the road or goes over a bridge understands that we need to spend billions of dollars rebuilding our infrastructure. Forty-six million Americans have no health insurance. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. In other words, we as a nation have enormous needs, and it is incumbent upon the Congress to do everything we can to take a hard look at fraud, waste, and abuse in every agency of the U.S. Government, including the Defense Department.

I know many of my colleagues come down here and take a hard look at this issue. They take a hard look at that issue, but for some reason or another, looking at the Defense Department seems to be off their radar screen, and I think that is wrong. I think that is especially wrong given the fact that the budget we are looking at right now for the Defense Department is over $500 billion, excluding the money we spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is more than half of the discretionary budget of our country. So it seems to me that with regard to any of the agencies out there, we should be very active in taking a hard look at the waste, fraud, and abuse that takes place within the Defense authorization bill.

The amendment I am offering with Senators FEINGOLD and WHITEHOUSE is pretty simple and straightforward. Today, more than half of the spare parts in the Air Force warehouses--over $18 billion--are not needed. That is $18 billion in spare parts which are not needed. In fact, if you can believe it, the Air Force has on order $235 million in inventory already identified as ready for disposal. They are spending $235 million to bring inventory in which is going to go out because they do not need it. That may make sense to somebody, but it certainly does not make sense to me.

The truth is that this type of wasteful practice has gone on year after year, resulting in an enormous waste of taxpayer money, and it must be ended. Our amendment does three things: No. 1, it requires the Secretary of Defense to develop a comprehensive plan for improving the inventory system. No. 2, it requires the certification to Congress that the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Defense Logistics Agency have reduced their secondary inventory. No. 3, it fences off $100 million in inventory purchases until the Secretary of Defense makes required certifications.

Mr. President, I would remind the Members of the Senate of one of the most significant speeches ever given by a President of the United States, and that President was Dwight David Eisenhower, who, as all Americans should know, was a five-star general and the military commander of Europe during World War II. He was, in fact, one of the great heroes in the defeat of nazism. Eisenhower, who became President in 1952--though it is not widely known--was extremely vocal in taking on not only Democrats--he was a Republican--but Republicans as well in saying that every nickel we spent on excess and wasteful military spending--something which he knew something about as a former five-star general--was simply taking money away from the needs of the American people.

A few days before he left office in 1961, President Eisenhower gave one of the most prophetic speeches ever made from the White House, and here is what Eisenhower said:

In the councils of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

This is what Eisenhower said before he left office in 1961. He was talking then about the military industrial complex. Well, let me tell you something. If he was worried about the military industrial complex and the influence they have in distorting national priorities in this country in 1961, I can only imagine what he would think about the power of the military industrial complex today.

So, Mr. President, clearly we want to have a very strong defense, clearly we want to make sure our soldiers have all of the equipment they need, but we have to take a hard look at the Defense Department, as we do at every other agency of Government, and I would hope very much that the amendment Senators FEINGOLD, WHITEHOUSE, and I have offered will, in fact, be accepted.

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