Obama signs $680b defense authorization bill

In a February address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama promised to “cut Cold War weapons systems we don’t use.” By signing today’s $680billion defense authorization bill, it’s remarkable at how well he succeeded.

Trimmed from the budget are more F-22s fighter jets, VH-71 presidential helicopters, and Air Force search-and-rescue helicopters.  In short, we own an acceptable quantity and/or quality of these systems to achieve their stated missions, freeing money money that could more efficiently be spent elsewhere.  The simple message comes down to this:  In the middle of two major military deployments, spending on weapons we don’t need makes America weaker because we’re short-changing those involved in our current fights.

The president has made a solid first step in breaking the iron triangle of defense contractors, congress, and the Pentagon.  However, the war is hardly over.  If you want to dunk your head in a buck of cold water, read Winslow Wheeler’s reality check- he quite compellingly argues that:

In 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year. Despite that, I see signs that we might be on the cusp of a change for the better.

This past week, as the Senate debated the Department of Defense (DOD) appropriations bill, a tiny bipartisan group of senators stood up to fix an important part of the gigantic mess in our defenses. This minuscule bunch lost at every turn when the votes were counted, but for the first time I can remember, senators revealed previously unrecognized aspects of their colleagues’ appalling pork-mongering — and took action against it. In the process, a few supremely powerful senators who have been corrupting the process were exposed as contemptible frauds. Now, if only the press would notice.

The issue at hand is a new tactic in budgetary slight-of-hand.  Sens. Inouye (D-HI) and Cochran (R-MS) have lead a group of Senators in raiding the “Operations and Maintenance” account - a little-noticed fund that pays for things like pilot training and basic equipment up-keep - to pay for home-state weapons projects that even the military says it doesn’t want.

Reforming the weapons acquisition culture is like turning an aircraft carrier 180 degrees.  The White House and Secretary Gates have started, but the next several Pentagon budgets will show us where we really are.