1115.org

I’ve mentioned previously that the Bush administration’s plan to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan seems like exactly the kind of misguided decision that usually results in a bloody nightmare, so the news that the sale might not go through is certainly welcome. But it’s the reason that is especially interesting and potentially instructive:

“Pakistan is at this time in a situation where we are trying to assess the damages caused by the earthquake and how are we going to cope with tragedy,” a Pakistani diplomat said.

In Pakistan, a natural disaster leads to a realistic assessment of fiscal priorities. In the U.S., it leads to wasteful government contracts and calls for tax cuts that drain the federal treasury. And while Pakistan is demonstrating remarkable discipline in military spending, the Pentagon is bleeding us dry to the tune of 30% of government expenditures.

And while military hawks look for any excuse to bulk up defense spending, we’re quickly backsliding to the days of the Cold War when the country became familiar with archetypical excesses like the $435 claw hammer, the $640 toilet seat and the $659 ashtray:

The Pentagon paid $20 apiece for plastic ice cube trays that once cost it 85 cents. It paid a supplier more than $81 apiece for coffeemakers that it bought for years for just $29 from the manufacturer. That’s because instead of getting competitive bids or buying directly from manufacturers like it used to, the Pentagon is using middlemen who set their own prices.
[…]
And it’s costing taxpayers 20 percent more than the old system, a Knight Ridder investigation found.
[…]
MGR Equipment Co. of Inwood, N.Y., which makes the [refrigerator] unit, charged DLA $17,267 in 2003 for each one. That’s the price that MGR President Gerald Ross said he charges everyone.

In September 2004, prime vendor Lankford Sysco Food Services Inc. sold the government nine MGR refrigerators for $32,642.50 apiece - a markup of 89 percent. The government paid $138,445 extra, when all prices were adjusted for inflation into 2005 dollars.

Coupled with rampant no-bid contracts, this procurement system makes a mockery of the free market the ruling Republicans claim to worship, as the demotion of Bunnatine Greenhouse for calling attention to such waste, flouts the accountability they demand from other programs. The President has been promising to reduce spending since the 2000 campaign, and he reiterated those promises in a speech on Tuesday. It’s unfortunate that his suggestions always include killing or cutting small programs with powerless constituencies from the smallest pieces of the budget pie.

There’s obviously plenty of fat to trim from the defense budget, and for once we should take a lesson from our “ally in the war on terror.”