The DoD Should Look at Every Penny Before Cutting a Soldier

On Thursday, I spoke at the National Security Action Conference against the Department of Defense’s recent budget decisions, Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, President Maduro’s oppression of Venezuelans’ freedoms, and a nuclear-armed Iran. 

Everyone would agree that there is waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon, like any large bureaucracy…Yesterday I had the opportunity to question Secretary Hagel. I asked him why the Pentagon is continuing to spend $170 million on algae fuel that costs four times as much as regular fuel and is instead cutting Army infantry troops. I asked him why they are spending $7 billion on renewable energy projects, including $14 million on wind turbines in Alaska in a place where there was no wind… why do they continue to pour that money down a rat hole? And rather than cut that waste they propose cutting the Army’s Brigade Combat Teams.

The answers he gave were utterly unsatisfactory. At first he had to reach for the comptroller and say, I don’t know what we’re spending on that. Maybe he should know what we’re spending on that if he’s proposing cutting tens of thousands of people from our army. Before you cut a solider, let me suggest the Secretary of Defense should find out every penny that’s being wasted in this building and take that penny and use it to support the men and women in our military and to defend our national security.