Pentagon looks for $100B in cost savings

[kpete]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Pentagon looks for $100B in cost savings

By STEPHEN MANNING, AP Business Writer


Monday, June 28, 2010

(06-28) 12:57 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday he wants to trim some of the billions of dollars the Pentagon spends on weapons systems and contractor services, part of a Pentagon-wide effort to find $100 billion in savings in the next five years

Gates, who already plans to pare down the Pentagon's huge bureaucracy to save money, said that the Defense Department will focus on unnecessary spending by defense contractors that provide the military with everything from fighter jets to janitors.

Gates said it is "a matter of principle and political reality to make sure every taxpayer dollar counts." His goal is to shift money from overhead expenses to supporting U.S. troops spread around the globe.

The Pentagon will spend about $400 billion of its roughly $700 billion budget on weapons and services from defense contractors.




Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/28/national/w120535D40.DTL&type=politics#ixzz0sCjeYv1P

[Arctic Dave]

1. Suggestion, SHUT DOWN THE OCCUPATION!

Another suggestion, shut down 90% of our overseas bases.

[OhioChick]

3. That would save a fortune. n/t

[pscot]

2. I can remember when soldiers

cooked their own meals and washed their own pots and pans. For only $78.59 a month.

[PacerLJ35]

4. When was that? 1950?

You could buy a car for less than a grand back then too. Good luck trying to get people to volunteer to make less than $100 and potentially put their lives on the line and families on hold.

[pscot]

5. 1962

When I made E3 my pay went up to $96 a month. And part of that had to go to a savings bond. Unit cohesion and making the Major look good.

[PacerLJ35]

6. Military's not like that anymore...

Mandatory service ending changed all that. Regardless, most junior enlisted aren't getting rich off military service.

[boppers]

7. What, we shouldn't pay the current contractors 5-10x as much to do the same job?

Are our current forces even *trained* to take care of themselves anymore? Could they do their own dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, driving, etc.?

[PacerLJ35]

10. Huh?

Do you really think we have people that do our laundry and driving? As for cooking, most military cook for themselves...those that don't are junior enlisted and eat at this place called a chow hall. You make it sound like we've all got butlers.

I personally have my own house, drive my own car, cook my own food, etc etc etc. If you know where I can find someone to do these things for me for free, let me know since I'm out of town and my yard needs mowing.

[boppers]

13. Since you said "we", I assume you're in. FTR, I am not.

What we (I?) hear in the states is that contractors are driving trucks, pumping gas, cooking food, doing laundry, running the chow halls, and generally providing all kinds of non-combat services in theater.

I do not know if they do lawns as well, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they offered to mow deployed servicepeople's lawns, at 100 bucks a lawn. Per inch mowed.

[boppers]

14. For reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TxqoMOp36c

Reality or not, this is something we've been hearing about contractors.

[Bigmack]

8. Gosh! $100 Billion in savings... I'm impressed...

I just finished reading "The Complex... How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives" by Nick Turse

A 2003 GAO study indicated the Pentagon couldn't find 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, etc...They couldn't account for a Trillion Bucks worth of gear.

And that was before the Iraq/Vietghanistan clusterfuck.

The could find $100 Billion in savings by looking in the goddam couch cushions.

Let's try for Half a Trillion to begin with... and FIND THE FUCKING GEAR!

[PacerLJ35]

9. A lot of that "lost gear" is probably located in some paperwork snafu

Believe it or not, but there are a number of different dispositions for things like aircraft...surplus, storage, attrition reserve, PAA inventory, etc. Sometimes things like that wind up in two different piles and get counted twice, but there's only one of them. I've seen that personally myself.

It's not like somebody took an F-16 home and forgot to bring it back.

[Bigmack]

11. I know a guy who stole a truck-crane from a base....

I know they didn't actually lose most of that shit, but if they can't find it they can't use it. Therefore, it is GONE!

Read the book... those $500 toilet seats are nothing. The transport costs for parts run to thousands for a 5 cent part.

Time to run the fucking Pentagon like a business!

[PacerLJ35]

12. The point is...

It's not gone. It's just duplication in the records. For example, there are 55 F-16s that belong to organization A on paper, and 25 that belong to organization B on paper. One gets transferred to organization B but organization A doesn't properly annotate the disposition and reports still owning the F-16. So now, on paper it looks like Org. A has 55, and Org B has 26, but they can only count 80 when the paper work says there is 81.

I seriously doubt anyone stole an airplane from a base...or a tank for that matter.

And believe it or not, it's the federal contracting regulations that hamstring the DoD into buying stuff like $500 toilet seats. It's not like the DoD has any authority to create their own contracting regs...everything we do within DoD is governed by the CFRs. I've seen lots of red tape in my years, and a lot of it is from the multiple-sourced CFRs that create many of these road blocks to actually havin any sensible method of getting stuff done. Military folks and leadership recognizes these issues but they aren't Congress and they can't make or change the laws.

The way Congress requires budgetary money to be spent is insane.

[bahrbearian]

15. Could make that up easily , close down Star Wars