National Catholic Reporter

The Independent News Source

Open letter to the supercommittee (aka the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction)

 |  NCR Today

Dear committee members,

I urge you to cut military spending deeply.

We only need our current budget if we plan more wars like the past decade. It is time for diplomacy.

Some procurement boondoggles identified by the Government Accountability Office include:

  • Ballistic missile defense

  • The littoral combat ship named the Sea Fighter

  • The information grid

  • The Navy/Marine Corps intranet

  • The MWRAP vehicle

Unworkable or unnecessary systems tend to have something in common: Their costs are often uncontrollable. A 2009 Government Accountability Office study of 96 major defense acquisition programs found that almost two-thirds of them suffered major cost overruns -- 40 percent above contract prices, overall -- with average delays of nearly two years. Those overruns totaled close to $300 billion, about the amount of President Bill Clinton's last full defense budget request a decade ago.

There’s more to NCR than what you read online. Explore our Ministries special section.

As the late Sen. Everett Dirksen said, "A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you are spending real money."

Sincerely yours,

NCR Comment code:

  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  • Don't use obscene, profane or vulgar language.
  • Stay on point. Comments that stray from the original idea may be deleted.

We are not able to monitor every comment that comes through. If you see something objectionable, please click the "Report abuse" button. Once a comment has been flagged, an NCR staff member will investigate.

For more detailed guidelines, visit our User Guidelines page.

For help on how to post a comment, visit our reference page.

Sisters' Stories; read more

NCR Email Alerts

 

In This Issue

June 7-20, 2013

June7-cover.jpg

Not all of our content is online. Subscribe to receive all the news and features you won't find anywhere else.