America First Pentagon Spending and Contracting Policy Needed
Our federal government has been failing us for decades in controlling spending. As our national debt increases by two trillion a year, Congress refuses to attempt to balance the budget. It’s time for an America First policy to be imposed government wide that gets spending under control and pushes policies that benefit American consumers and workers.
It appears that Congress can’t even agree to cut spending in this year’s appropriations bills. The Hill reported on January 14, 2024, “Congressional leaders rolled out a two-step plan to stave off a partial government shutdown this week, kicking the funding threat into early March to buy more time for spending talks.” The House Freedom Caucus (HFC) responded on X, formerly Twitter, by arguing “The @HouseGOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies. This is what surrender looks like.” How are we supposed to control spending when some Republicans in leadership are willing to surrender on spending to avoid a fight? If there’s no fight at $34 trillion in debt, why should we expect one at $40 or even $50 trillion? Now is the time to draw the line and say no more.
There needs to be a comprehensive strategy to cut spending now, as in today. The Center for Renewing America put out their own budget for 2023 that included “nearly $9 trillion in savings over ten years from spending cuts and reforms.” One idea was to dismantle “the woke and weaponized bureaucracy” that saves $3 trillion and “reforms to mandatory spending that increase participation in the labor force, reduce welfare, end the inflationary drivers of subsidizing student loans, inject common sense into health spending, etc.” saving $6 trillion. Balance is possible if Members of Congress are willing to paint with bold colors: trimming the fat off the elephant of debt will get us nowhere.
In April of last year, Citizens Against Government Waste(CAGW) put out the 2023 Congressional Pig Book that is loaded with ideas for spending cuts. CAGW identifies spending directed by Congress in the form of specified spending that is either contained in appropriations bills or the report that accompanies the bill. CAGW found “7,396 earmarks, an increase of 43.9% from the 5,138 in FY 2022, at a cost of $26.1 billion.” Over the history of the studies, CAGW has identified “$437.5 billion” in earmarks that could have been completely eliminated saving the taxpayers a number approaching one-half of a trillion dollars.
Another strategy that saves taxpayer cash is the idea of insourcing U.S. tax dollars. Concentrate on a government contracting process that uses American workers and contractors to provide for our national defense. In the long run, this will save money while expanding economic opportunity domestically. Exporting tax dollars helps foreign companies and does not help create American jobs and wealth.
An America First strategy on defense would be to focus on defending America and spending taxpayer dollars wisely. In the area of government contracting, it makes sense to use American, not foreign, contractors to save taxpayer cash by avoiding the added cost of dealing with a foreign contractor, including legal expenses and the obvious costs associated with a contract with a company located over an ocean away. Any legal disputes would be costly and replacing parts might get hung up in a slow international supply chain.
A great example of an opportunity for the Pentagon to scrap the idea of using a European based aircraft supplier is the proposed $12 billion contract to produce seventy-five refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. Reuters reported on October 23, 2023, “an Airbus victory would land Airbus its first aircraft contract with the U.S. Air Force after attempting to penetrate the U.S. defense market for two decades.” Outsourcing the production of refueling tankers would be a mistake and would open the door for the French-based Airbus to expand contracting with the Air Force. It would also prove to be a waste of taxpayer cash. This contract made more sense when they partnered with an American contractor to help solve these budget busting issues, yet in October of last year it was announced that the American contractor has exited “Air Force tanker competition.”
These are just some small examples of how to save money, but a great example of the mentality needed to cut spending across the board. It’s long past time for an America First strategy regarding the contracting and spending with our federal government. Not only will it save taxpayer dollars, it will benefit the country economically.
Ned Ryun is the Founder and CEO of American Majority.
