Image courtesy of picryl.
Evaluating U.S. National Security Spending
A few weeks ago, the Commission on the National Defense Strategy found that the United States was “not ready for another global conflict” and that “without significant change by the United States, the balance of power will continue to shift in China’s favor.” The Commission’s 132-page report made a number of important proposals for guaranteeing U.S. security, highlighting areas of unpreparedness in an increasingly tense global security environment. Alongside many other recommendations, the report noted that “real growth in defense and nondefense national security spending is needed.” As true as that may appear at first glance, increased national security spending without any reevaluation of the current budget will not guarantee U.S. security, but instead may exacerbate the inefficiency and waste within the defense budget. As part of the effort to increase U.S. security, the Department of Defense must get its budget under control and Congress needs to increase regulation and oversight of defense contractors.
The Department of Defense’s current and former budgeting practices put it at risk of overspending. Last year, the DoD failed its sixth audit in a row. Further, the DoD’s weapons systems acquisition, contract management, business systems modernization, financial management, and approach to business transformation have all been on the Government Accountability Office’s High Risk List of programs and operations “vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, or in need of transformation” for nearly two or more decades. Without a proper understanding of its own budget, it would seem impossible for the Department of Defense to truly optimize spending to ensure the best use of the money for the promotion of U.S. national security.
Indeed, a significant amount of the DoD’s funding has gone to defense contractors overcharging the department. Just last year, an investigation conducted by CBS found that some contractors were repeatedly overcharging the Department of Defense, making profits of 40 or 50 percent by doing so. In 2015, a review found that Lockheed Martin and Boeing were overcharging both the Pentagon and U.S. allies for the Patriot’s PAC-3 missiles by hundreds of millions of dollars. The DoD’s Inspector General later found another contractor to have made profit margins of up to 4,451 percent by overcharging the military for parts and supplies. All in all, the practice of overcharging by defense contractors has cost the United States government a fortune. And yet, nearly half of the Pentagon’s 842 billion dollar budget was earmarked for defense contractors. Increasing national security spending without sufficiently resolving this issue, or that of DoD’s failed audits, only ensures that taxpayer money is not being used to its full potential.
Correcting both of these issues would increase U.S. national security. The defense spending bill, which comes with a 3.3 percent increase in funding for the DoD, was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee last week. However, the bill has not yet made it to the House, which has previously adhered to the 1 percent increase cap outlined in the 2023 Fiscal Responsibility Act, nor has the bill made it to the Senate floor. Should lawmakers approve this budget, they must do so with the understanding that change is needed. Leaders at DoD should be given a target date within the next few years by which the department must either be able to pass an audit or be alright operating without a budget increase until it can. Additionally, Congress should seriously consider the , which intends to close loopholes frequently exploited by defense contractors. The adoption of these measures in conjunction would force the Department of Defense to prioritize budget accountability while also putting an end to the practice of price gouging so frequently employed by defense contractors.
The Commission on the National Defense’s recent strategy was absolutely correct: the United States currently finds itself in a perilous security setting, and it needs to take necessary steps to prepare itself. But increasing spending without first addressing the issues that the Department of Defense’s budget faces will not solve the United States’ security concerns. Eliminating even a percentage of the waste currently present in the U.S. national security budget would help create the resources necessary for the United States to shift the balance of power back into its favor—in a way, eliminating waste would serve as its own form of a budget increase. Together, the Pentagon and Congress have the opportunity to make that goal a reality.
