Defense Cuts and Waste

"Where is the pen? Is it out of ink? Where is the phone? Is it out of service?” Elizabeth Hasselbeck on Tuesday's Fox and Friends

She made this comment during a debate about the military cutbacks announced Monday by SecDef Chuck Hagel.

Before Robert Gates left in 2011, he had pared back defense spending to account for our reduced role in the world as the troops were leaving Iraq that year. He understood that since there was no Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) with the "liberated" Iraqi government, the anticipated expenditures for remaining troops and base supports were not needed.

He didn't cut benefits and pensions because he understood the sacrifices our men and women in uniform have made and were dealing with as civilians. He also understood that the remaining military, and their families, continued to make sacrifices dealing with the paltry sum an enlisted soldier and junior grade officer made as a "salary". He reasoned that to cut down on commissary and post expenses to the government would far and away severely impact our service men and women and their families on the cost of food and shelter.

Enter Leon Panetta.  Mr. Panetta was an even stronger Secretary of Defense, who had the political experience to stand up to the President in his quest to gut the military. When the President was looking to further cut military expenditures in fiscal 2011, 2012 and 2013, Sec. Panetta proved to be a roadblock to that action, citing

, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel

the Gates budget plan which foresaw and implemented those cuts in 2011.

Now, Secretary Hagel has announced the cuts to our military budget which will bring our levels to their lowest levels since 1940. I guess the world is in a better and safer

place now that the Nazis and the Fascists were defeated.

Not a word has been said on the outlandish discretionary spending our government wastes our tax dollar on, you know, those vacations (22 since 2009), dresses, 3,000 calorie state dinners, 100% pensions and benefits for retired congressmen and senators, cabinet members, and presidents and millionaires.

Finally, the CBO put out a chart which showed the cost of expenditures between defense and other expenditures, including social security and Medicare. Keep in mind that Social Security and Medicare are paid for by taxpayers through payroll and 1099 taxes. Or, at least, are supposed to be.

Defense spending has stayed around 18% of the budget since 1990 while entitlements have grown to 48% of total expenses. Non-defense discretionary spending is 17%, while  interest expense is 6% and other mandatory spending is 11%.

The first question the President should be asking is, "What constitutes other mandatory spending?" and the second question should be, "What makes up our non-defense discretionary spending?" Most business people understand that a better accounting of miscellaneous spending is required to run a successful business which these last two items actually are. Oh, right. The President doesn't know what to ask because he never ran a business.

He has a phone and a pen though! Maybe Elizabeth is right when she said the phone is out of service and the pen ran dry.

I guess we should give the President and DefSec Hagel the benefit of the doubt. They are entitled to that at least.