DiscoGary wrote:
... and Democrats should know just how much corruption to expect from morally corrupt politicians. They are experts on the topic.
This is nonsense, Gary. It's wonderfully symbolic to polarize Dems vs. Reoubs and chase pennies, but it's the Pentagon Republicans who have controlled the military for decade, and that is the electric third rail no one will touch that is bankrupting this country.
The US military spends $600 billion (to China's $200 billion and Russia's $75 billion) per year. Still, it has always been falling behind (I worked for the Navy for 36+ years, shore and ships). So it's time for you to knock off the s**t posting and hold those bastards accountable.
In the 1970s we were designing ships to be less vulnerable to WWII dive bombers. Unfortunately that made them tall and narrow, less seaworthy and vulnerable to over the horizon missiles and naval guns. Probably since 1900 we have been planning for the wrong war and wasting money accordingly.
One of the biggest failures of DOD is maintenance and parts availability; 40 years ago the Navy had a goal to have 30% parts/equipment interchangeable on ships of the same class. Even on ships built in the same shipyard this hasn't been achieved. Like many DOD problems, this is a contract admin problem. DOD has been a big proponent of metrics, but no one seems to evaluate the 'value' of the metric. DOD rated PM as satisfactory if it had been scheduled, ignored (didn't collect) actual completion data for Preventative Maintenance. A well-hyped by hawks DOD deficiency is the flight availability of DOD aircraft; it's pretty easy to see how this happened. DOD only procures only high maintenance aircraft, new planes in the pipeline require 50 hours of maintenance for each flight hour. Consider a South West passenger jet that logs in twelve flight hours in a long day; does it get 600 hours of maintenance to get ready for the next day? Or Do they turn it off and park it at the gate till the next morning (San Diego practice)? Our country may have started with the concept of a Minuteman, but it has evolved into the SixMonthMan. What is the point of having the most technically advanced weapons in the world if you can only use them a couple of times a week, or month. Our professional politicians (the military brass) have created a military they can't maintain; more money for high tech toys won't change that problem or stop the number of military personnel killed due to incomplete or inadequate maintenance.
Remember in 2016 when DOD revealed how much they completely lost in appropriated funds? "Trillions Go Missing from the Military: Pentagon Can't Account for $6.5T in Taxpayer Cash" (Fox News August 18, 2016).
Surprisingly, as the overwhelming chunk of discretionary spending, DOD has NEVER BEEN AUDITED. Give them credit for the chutzpah to ask for more money when they don't know where they spend what they get now.
Between taxing churches, reigning in the military and appropriately taxing corporations this country could be flush. Instead it's been F'ked over by greedy Republicans.