The Air Force struggles to field mission-capable aircraft. This is caused by an aging fleet and the failure of new aircraft such as the Joint Strike Fighter.
Spidey Sense Signals Incoming Pork
The United States spends approximately 3.2 percent of gross domestic product on defense each year, good for $716 billion in fiscal year 2019, a total that dwarfed spending for all other federal agencies. Unfortunately, the Department of Defense (DOD) performs notoriously poorly when it comes to tracking spending. The DOD remains the sole federal agency […]
Members of Congress Again Fail to Learn a Lesson
On May 20, 2019, the House Appropriations Committee released its report to accompany the Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2020. The report provides funding for 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, 12 more than was requested by the Department of Defense (DOD). This follows the established trend in recent […]
DOD Auditors Swing and Miss
Auditors at the Department of Defense (DOD) have provided a blueprint for underachieving students everywhere: they may have failed the test, but they never expected to pass! Speaking to reporters on November 15, 2018, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan stated “We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it.” While the DOD […]
Lost in Space: New Branch Makes Little Sense
Citizens Against Government Waste has previously covered the idea of creating a sixth military branch. The argument in favor of a Space Force is almost entirely without merit. It will increase bureaucracy, add to overhead costs, and complicate existing command structures, all without providing additional capabilities. For these very reasons, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was […]
F-35: More Money, More Problems
The acquisition misadventures of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program have been well-documented. In development for nearly 17 years and seven years behind schedule, the program is approximately $173 billion over budget and has encountered an abundance of persistent issues. An April 2015 Government Accountability Office report noted that the lifetime operation and maintenance […]
Safeguarding Infrastructure Investment
As a candidate, President Trump pledged to invest in upgrading the country’s infrastructure. While there is no formal plan to date from the White House, President Trump stated on May 1, 2017, that “If you have a job that you can’t start within 90 days, we’re not going to give you the money for it because it doesn’t help. … We’re going to be very strong on that. They have to be able to start within 90 days.”
Wasteful IRS Program Fails to Prevent Tax Fraud
The least favorite government agency during the month of April is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (although that may be true every month of the year). During the 2015 tax season, only 38 percent of phone calls were answered, as the IRS hung up on more than 30 million taxpayers. The tax code and tax regulations combined are more than 70,000 pages long. Annual compliance with IRS paperwork takes 8.9 billion hours and costs the economy $409 billion in lost productivity.
Waste Abounds in the Land of the Midnight Sun
On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing to consider the construction of a road linking the town of King Cove to Cold Bay, and the latter’s all-weather airport. At issue is H.R. 218, introduced by Federal Lands Subcommittee member Don Young (R-Alaska) in January 2017, which […]
Obscuring the Cost Growth of the “Little Crappy Ship”
The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), referred to as the “Little Crappy Ship” by some inside the Navy, has been a disaster since its inception. The difficulties experienced by the program range from a vaguely defined mission, a lack of firepower and survivability, and design flaws leading to cracks in the hull and corrosion. The number of ships has been cut in half, from 55 to 28, while the cost per ship has increased by 117.3 percent, from $220 million to $478 million.