This excess and waste in the military (and every other government program I would bet) has nothing to do with waste, incompetence, kickbacks, bribes, greased palms etc. The military (with the new AirForce 1) is a jobs program; we need a new Air Force 1, not because the old one needs to be replaced. We need a new Air Force 1 to keep Boeing employees employed The military budget is about half of the Federal budget, not because we need to keep ahead of our enemies, but rather to keep our citizens employed. There is just not enough real work that we can have 100% employment, so we have to "make work" and because so many of us are convinced that the military needs to be rebuilt a bloated military budget gets approved every time even by the deficit hawks. Its easy to get a new unnecessarry military program approved, but a network of high speed trains or a government paid electric grid, or solar panels for every roof, or new bridges across the country, not so muchheres some things I found on the internet that says it better than I
"Why is the military’s half of the pie sacrosanct? Wasteful and unnecessary military programs get a pass from legislators because the military is also our largest and most secure jobs program, one that has penetrated into the nooks and crannies of Every Town U.S.A. If it were disbanded, the economy would be crippled by soaring unemployment, plant closures, and bankruptcies."and this from several years ago "National security is a cover for job security.This is nuts.Wouldn’t it be better to have a jobs program that created things we really need — like light-rail trains, better school facilities, public parks, water and sewer systems, and non-carbon energy sources — than things we don’t, like obsolete weapons systems?Historically some of America’s biggest jobs programs that were critical to the nation’s future have been justified by national defense, although they’ve borne almost no relation to it. The National Defense Education Act of the late 1950s trained a generation of math and science teachers. The National Defense Highway Act created millions of construction jobs turning the nation’s two-lane highways into four- and six-lane Interstates.Maybe this is the way to convince Republicans and blue-dog Democrats to spend more federal dollars putting Americans back, and working on things we genuinely need: Call it the National Defense Full Employment Act."So if Trump does succeed in re-negotiating the bill for AirForce One (and other government spending) downward.... good for him. but not so good for the economy. To keep people working he is going to have to spend the money on other programs, probably by convincing republicans that we need it for the national defense. With any luck we will get things we actually need instead of a new airplane we dont.
