Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste
@Il Duce mentioned this in the GEN Mattis for SECDEF thread, but I felt it deserved its own discussion.
What I took from the article, essentially, is that the Pentagon thinks it will be too hard to actually back up its claims of wanting to streamline. So, instead of taking any meaningful action, it would rather just hide behind rhetoric like, "It's not that easy" and "We're a big organization, shit happens." For Congress's part, I think it's completely out of line to hold onto defense jobs just because they want them in their districts. Either the job is needed, at the current pay rate, or it isn't. It's a numbers decision, not an emotional or "nice to have" decision.
The Pentagon had a chance to do the right thing here, and they failed miserably. I understand worrying about the potential for a budget cut, and wanting to reinvest the $125 billion into weapons and operating costs. However, the responsibility remains to report the facts. You report the findings, you have a plan to immediately start implementing changes, and you ask Congress, "Hey man, we figured out we were spending way too much on bullshit. What we'd like to do is implement x, y, and z to save this money. Instead of cutting it from our budget, we'd love to be able to reinvest it into a, b, and c. Whaddya think?"
@Il Duce mentioned this in the GEN Mattis for SECDEF thread, but I felt it deserved its own discussion.
What I took from the article, essentially, is that the Pentagon thinks it will be too hard to actually back up its claims of wanting to streamline. So, instead of taking any meaningful action, it would rather just hide behind rhetoric like, "It's not that easy" and "We're a big organization, shit happens." For Congress's part, I think it's completely out of line to hold onto defense jobs just because they want them in their districts. Either the job is needed, at the current pay rate, or it isn't. It's a numbers decision, not an emotional or "nice to have" decision.
The Pentagon had a chance to do the right thing here, and they failed miserably. I understand worrying about the potential for a budget cut, and wanting to reinvest the $125 billion into weapons and operating costs. However, the responsibility remains to report the facts. You report the findings, you have a plan to immediately start implementing changes, and you ask Congress, "Hey man, we figured out we were spending way too much on bullshit. What we'd like to do is implement x, y, and z to save this money. Instead of cutting it from our budget, we'd love to be able to reinvest it into a, b, and c. Whaddya think?"
