Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

September 15, 2012

Other Words: Glimmer of military budget sanity

By Miriam Pembertonand Gabriel I. Rossman ----

Here's a milestone of sorts. In July, for the first time since 1998, the House of Representatives voted to maintain the current military budget rather than increase Pentagon spending. It's the first step toward bringing the budget down.

Within the bill, which included more than $600 billion for the military, the House embedded a few gestures toward fiscal sanity. Most important was the decision of 89 Republicans to join most Democrats in shaving a billion bucks off the budget that House Republican leaders had proposed.

Less publicized was a much smaller gesture. Congress voted to block Rep. Hal Rogers, R-KY, the chair of the House committee in charge of spending, from steering a contract to his district in Kentucky to buy $17,000 drip pans for Black Hawk helicopters.

Drip pans for $17,000? You know, pans that catch leaking transmission fluid. Congress ruled that the chair of the spending committee couldn't reward a frequent campaign contributor with a contract that somebody else could fulfill at 1/8th the cost to the taxpayer.

So why did Congress axe this particular sweet deal? Maybe they were a little worried that it would become the next $800 toilet seat.

Back in the 1980s, this fixture on a Navy plane epitomized military waste. As a symbol the public could really visualize, its discovery expedited contracting reform.

A pan that catches transmission fluid might not trigger the same outrage as that pricey toilet seat. But with the nation careening toward the edge of a fiscal cliff, the timing is right.

So Congress tried to head this particular program off before it got too much publicity.

We won't get too carried away with this glimmer of hope that a sane approach to military spending is around the corner. Still, for the first time since before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress voted to trim its leaders' aspirations for the overall military budget. It's a start.

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