• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

US military budget cuts stretching 'Screaming Eagles' to the limit

American

Trump Grump Whisperer
DP Veteran
Monthly Donator
Joined
Mar 11, 2006
Messages
95,987
Reaction score
33,329
Location
SE Virginia
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Conservative
US military budget cuts stretching 'Screaming Eagles' to the limit | Fox News

EXCLUSIVE: One month into the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S. military conducted the longest combat air assault in history, with roughly 4,000 soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division going deep into enemy territory at night in Mosul. Three years later, the division would carry out its last brigade-size air assault in combat during Operation Swarmer, also in Iraq.
Today, many are questioning whether operations of that magnitude could be conducted after budget cuts have stripped the nation’s premier air assault division of its helicopters.

Pretty pathetic. As they say, "No bucks, no Buck Rogers".
 
In 2011, the GOP held the United States budget hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Rather than see the US go into default, Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011. The BCA mandated fiscal cuts all across the budget known as sequestration cuts.

The 'Screaming Eagles' are no doubt feeling the effects of sequestration cuts.
 
In 2011, the GOP held the United States budget hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Rather than see the US go into default, Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011. The BCA mandated fiscal cuts all across the budget known as sequestration cuts.

The 'Screaming Eagles' are no doubt feeling the effects of sequestration cuts.

That was six years ago, much has changed.
 
In 2011, the GOP held the United States budget hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Rather than see the US go into default, Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011. The BCA mandated fiscal cuts all across the budget known as sequestration cuts.

The 'Screaming Eagles' are no doubt feeling the effects of sequestration cuts.

That was 6 years ago. 6 years of President Obama budgets.

When do the Democrats take responsibility for their actions? Ever? I am so sick and tired of their going "It is all the fault of the Republicans and Bush".
 
The entire military is broke down, and nobody has been paying attention until lately. I see it every freaking day here in Norfolk Naval Base, Oceana NAS, and Little Creek. You have all these threads about how bad our military would kick ass against against China and Russia, and we can't even get a flotilla out of port without cannibalizing 1/2 the fleet, or some air wing.
 
I would be angry but the 101st is annoying as ****.
 
The issue I have is the only solution ever presented is to increase military spending. Our military (and government) is grossly inefficient and mismanaged but hey why try making it more efficient when we can throw more money at it.
 
They're still like that?

You'd think this country would've been conquered by the Germans, Soviets, or whomever if it wasn't for the 101st by the way they talk about themselves. It's almost like they think they're the only combat formation in the army.
 
What we need to do is fire half the useless brass wandering around the Pentagon drinking coffee and trying to look useful.
 
The issue I have is the only solution ever presented is to increase military spending. Our military (and government) is grossly inefficient and mismanaged but hey why try making it more efficient when we can throw more money at it.

What we need to do is fire half the useless brass wandering around the Pentagon drinking coffee and trying to look useful.

To me the biggest problem with the Department of Defense is the huge amounts of bloat.

And this is not the bloat of the "useless brass", but the amount of civilians that work for the department. Here are some numbers to consider.

The US military has around 1.3 million individuals on active duty. It has another 800,000 in the Guard and Reserves. In total, that makes 2.7 million people in uniform.

The civilian side of the DoD amounts to over 740,000 direct US Government employees. That means that there is 1 civilian working for just under 4 in uniform (less than 2 for every 1 on active duty). Then to make it worse, you literally have the uncounted number of contractors that work for the military. I am not talking about the Yoyodyne contractors who are making a new hypervelocity ballistic anti-sumbarine missile, but the ones doing everything from washing dishes and guarding gates to issuing room keys in the barracks and changing light bulbs. Most estimates are that amounts to another 800,00+ people on the payroll.

That means that for every individual in uniform, there is a civilian also on the payroll, directly or indirectly. That is the real problem.

Over the past 3 decades, the military has moved away from it's real job, and the DoD has become a workfare program for civilians.

I have long thought that the Government needs to take an axe to the DoD and fire 2/3 of this civilian workforce. Most of those jobs can be done cheaper and more efficiantly by those in uniform, so let them do their job.

Back in the 1980's, we did not have anywhere near this many civilians. And every month we were given lists of "working parties" for the base or unit that we had to give up people to perform. It might be mowing grass, or washing dishes in the chow hall (dreaded "KP), or running the base gym or theater. Some of them were even highly coveted positions, like working at the base stable or scuba locker. Others spent the time driving the base bus or running office mail from one base-building to another (remember this was the era before the Internet).

But today, all of those jobs and more are done by civilians. Why in the hell are we paying some civilian to wash dishes at $12 an hour when we have privates sitting around doing nothing that can do it for free? Why are we paying civilians to guard our gates when it is our base and we should be doing that? Why are we paying civilians $20+ an hour to check in and issue basic gear like sleeping bags and ruck sacks instead of having supply sergeants doing the job?

That has become the real problem with the DoD. When I went back into the military in 2007, I was shocked at the number of civilians doing "our" jobs. And no joke, we could not even change lightbulbs. Somehow the Union civilian electricians convinced the military that changing lightbulbs was a dangerous job (it deals with electricity and hazardous waste), therefore only a trained Union electrician could do the job. So we had multiple 2 man teams which drove around Fort Bliss doing nothing but changing lightbulbs.

Something that decades earlier would have had the sergeant going "Private Schmuckatelli, go get a bulb from Supply and change it". Now we have to call Public Works, and wait 2-7 days for 2 civilians to finally show up and do that job.
 
And now that I am in the reserves, I see things that bother me even more. For 3 years I was drilling at a base that had 10 barracks available. Now 4 were reserved for various schools on post, that means 6 were available for housing soldiers. More than enough for all of the units stationed there. But did we ever stay at them? No, most of the time we were put up in the Hilton off post.

Do not get me wrong, the Hilton was nice. But as a taxpayer it always pissed me off that that was an expense that was excessive, and my tax money should be spent in better ways. I later found out that like all barracks it is actually administered by civilians (through a contract to a civilian company). And to actually use the barracks, my unit had to pay for their use.

And for a 1-2 night stay during a drill weekend, it was actually cheaper to rent rooms at the Hilton than it was to use our own barracks!

Fire those civilians and kill the contract. Then put a couple of Sergeants and a handfull of Privates on orders for 6 months, and have them take care of the barracks. I am sure that would cost a lot less than what they are paying the civilians to do the same thing, and it will have the added bonus of returning the barracks to the military so we could use them on drill weekends for no cost.
 
Back
Top Bottom