Eliminating Government and Military Waste in 2025
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart
There’s always a discussion in process related to eliminating
government waste and reducing America’s escalating national debt. The truth is,
every member of our government is aware of changes which could be made today
and save hundreds of billions of dollars every year. They simply don’t want to
do the right thing. Most of the talk is nothing more than a smoke screen to
hide the truth about the most corrupt, inefficient and expensive government in
the world.
The same is true about the Pentagon. Estimates are
unforgivable. Watchdog groups claim that 50 cents out of every dollar received
annually goes to waste.
Let’s begin with issues familiar to every American.
First, healthcare. Every man and woman sitting on the right
side of the aisle opposes universal healthcare. America remains the only
developed nation in the world refusing to offer free medical care for all of
its 340 million people.
Let’s eliminate healthcare benefits for all elected
officials. Our legislative branch is composed of 535 men and women. Taxpayers
pay for their healthcare. Why? They don’t want you to have the right to the
best medical care in the world, but they don’t want to pay for their own.
The same is true for the executive and judicial branches. This would save
nearly one-billion dollars every year.
When I was a member of the working-class, I was only paid
for the hours I worked. Let’s eliminate pay for our elected officials which is
now based on an annual rate. Let’s pay them for the hours they actually work.
The nine justices on the Supreme Court have a three month
vacation each year, from early July until October 1st. However, they
choose the cases they will hear, and Court is not in session every day during
the nine months scheduled.
The executive branch is a joke. Trump’s “work” schedule
when he is actually in Washington is about three hours, four days each week.
Most of his time is spent golfing, watching television, and traveling to and
from Mar-a-Lago.
The average Representative in the House spends about 147
days in the Capitol Building. In the Senate, the average is 165. The majority
of their time is spent campaigning for reelection.
Looking at the enormous incompetence and corruption in
Washington today, that may actually be a good thing.
“Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're
paying for.” Will Rogers
If these worthless politicians were actually paid for the
hours they work, their annual pay would be reduced significantly.
The President is paid $400,000 each year: the vice-president
$235,100. The 535 members of the House and Senate have a base pay of $174,000
per year. The nine Supreme Court Justices, appointed for life, receive a base
pay of $298,500 every year.
One other issue really pisses my off. Trump uses his
position to spend about 10 million dollars every month for personal reasons.
Most of this involves the cost of using Air Force One as his personal aircraft.
For every hour AF-1 is in use, the cost is more than $270,000. I believe that
Trump should pay for the privilege of using AF-1 every time he travels to one
of his golf resorts, to Mar-a-Lago, or to any other personal event.
Now for our useless military leaders.
In 2025, the Pentagon’s budget is $849.8 billion. After
researching how the Pentagon spends that money for the last 13 years, it is an irrefutable
fact that the budget for our military should be cut in half.
I offer you two facts which reveal enormous waste.
There are approximately 2,800 M2 Bradley Fighting
Vehicles sitting in storage, and about 3,700 in occasional use. Each of these
tanks costs taxpayers more than $3.2 million.
Each F-22 Raptor fighter costs taxpayers $350 million.
However, this is misleading. It was in the planning stages in 1997, but never
used by the USAF until 2005. Even then, it failed many of its tests. In a mock “dog
fight” with an F-16, it lost. I cannot find a record of the total cost of the
program, but I can report enormous delays, cost overruns, and refitting
continue. The F-22 has not reached the “mass production” stage yet. Although
the Pentagon claims that the total cost of the program is $66 billion, I am positive
that the real cost exceeds $100 billion.
Something to think about: although the military of the
United States is five-times larger than all other nation’s combined, and the
cost is well over the funding for the world’s combined military forces, the
Pentagon has lost every war and every military conflict since WWII.
In a recent study of all developed nations, the United
States is last in several important areas: healthcare, education, and most
importantly, quality of life for all people. If government waste was no longer
a reality, our nation’s people, the country, would prosper and no longer
struggle to survive.
Op-ed by James Turnage
Follow my blog and be informed
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/15/doge-pentagon-defense-spending
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