A Proposal To Reduce The Defense Budget (Opinion)

Disclaimer: This post represents my opinion only and is no reflection on the views of my employer.

There is no question that the Department of Defense is a huge part of the National Budget.  I think that it is possible to make significant cuts in that budget without impairing our national capabilities.  There are many issues in the Defense budget to include Healthcare, size of the force, entitlements, compensation etc. that are important, but I am not going to discuss those issues.  Rather, my interest is in how the Department of Defense buys stuff.

A lot has been written about Acquisition Reform, and I am not going to write much about that topic except to say that every few years there is another reform effort that never seems to reach the vision of those who initiate it.  A lot of very smart people work on this issue and fail, and I am not convinced that I am any smarter or more earnest than they are.  Rather, I intend to propose fixing the system from the bottom up with a few radical policy changes that would greatly empower end users to get the goods that they need at effective prices.

A Religious Test

This post discusses the startling results from a poll/quiz previously posted on this blog regarding the US Constitution.  Surprisingly, only a minority of respondents can correctly identify which statement about God and religion is actually in the Constitution.

Now, of course this poll is not a scientific one, and one should use caution in interpreting the results of  such a poll, but nevertheless I suspect it is indicative of profound ignorance of the US Constitution.

Before I reveal the results, let me state the poll one more time to give the reader an opportunity to see which answer he or she would have marked as correct.

The poll asks the reader to finish the statement, "the Constitution states:"

The following options were given as choices:

• Men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"
• In God We Trust
• There shall be "separation between Church and State"
• "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States"
• One Nation Under God