The April 19 editorial page cartoon by Jack Ohman sums up the problem with budget debates. The military gets all the bells and whistles it wants and more, while programs such as health care for the elderly are trampled. Elected officials talk about cutting spending, but in practice they have failed to make real cuts where most of the discretionary money is, the military, including the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars are not making Americans safer, they are bankrupting us - a major security problem.
An example of congressional support for military waste was the alternate engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Pentagon didn't want the extra $485 million, but Congress insisted they take it. That's $485 million less we have to spend on education, health care and real needs here at home. That money would pay the salaries for 7,200 elementary school teachers for a year.
North Carolina's Rep. Mel Watt and Rep. Walter Jones have consistently opposed such wasteful programs and the wars. They seem serious about cutting the deficit and are willing to go to one of the biggest pockets of waste.
