The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security

After reading and enjoying the first half of this book, I signed on to read the reviews here. I have come to believe it is a good measure of a book to look at the seriousness of the negative reviews. The one negative review here, so far, is not credible. To criticize a substative critique of our governmental procedures because it is not entertaining, seems shallow. To call a work polemic, is not to say it is untrue. I highly recommend this work. I will not think the same of the way our congress works or doesn't work because of Mr. Wheeler's insights. His criticisms are bi-partison and concern the procedures of our government. The section of the book contrasting the development of the War Powers Act to the recent senate approval of the Iraqi war, is worth the price of the entire book. Much of the book discusses "Pork" issues in the Senate and specifically in defense bills. But the real issue is how such issues corrupt the entire process. To dismiss this issue because the dollar amount spent on "pork" is small in relationship to the entire federal budget, is to overlook the corrosive effect of this matter. This book highlights how prevasive it is in the lives of our members of congress. And that is a fact that is not in the interests of anyone reading this review.

How does Congress sabotage U.S. security? Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security is no sensationalist title: it's written by a veteran National Security Advisor to four senators and backed by years of political insider interactions. His is a damning expose arguing that since 9/11, Congress has endangered the nation's security by diverting money from war-fighting accounts to pay for state interests. Meticulous documentation of such actions makes this a winning title not limited to one party or philosophy, but to an overall analysis of Congressional failures.

The Framers of the Constitution, in their efforts to improve an inadequate Articles of Confederation, spent a lot of time worrying about what powers the central government should have and how these powers should be distributed among the branches so that government could perform its essential functions but not threaten the people's liberties. The solution they devised was the system of checks-and-balances familiar to every American high school civics student. Winslow Wheeler's thesis is that after 217 years, that system no longer works. What he means is that Congress has given up so much of its constitutional power to the executive branch that our system of government has settled into a stable state where Congress is a spectator to - rather than a check upon - presidential power. As Wheeler takes pains to point out, the dollar amounts wasted in pork are not the problem. In FY 2005, pork, that is items placed into the DoD budget by members of Congress, amount to something like $8.5 - $10 billion, which sounds like serious money until you realize that it's shoveled on top of a defense budget that will approach $500 billion (including the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan). And yes, much of that money is coming out of the O & M (operations and maintenance) accounts and so will shortchange our troops of many of the low-tech but essential items they need to survive and do their jobs. This is a travesty, surely, but it's where the money is transferred from, not the amount of pork, per se, that is the problem. What makes the system stable is what senators and representatives have to do to get their share. Basically, they have to support the existing system or that system will not reward the member when time comes to ladle out pork or choose candidates for the next primary. The system, though, is more than mutual backscratching in the quest for handouts. Members have to demonstrate their loyalty by supporting critical decisions by congressional leaders, the most important of which is the determination of when to employ American military forces. As Wheeler reminds us, the question of when the president can go to war and for how long and what type of authorization he needs, if any, goes all the way back to the debates of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Since the Tonkin Gulf Resolution under Lyndon Johnson, power over war has shifted strongly to the executive branch, ironically in ways that the framers envisioned might happen and went to great lengths to try to prevent. Despite a small setback under Nixon (due more to his political bungling than any desire to respect the Constitution), this shift continued under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and has reached what appears to be the end state under George W. Bush. On October 2, 2002, the president requested and on October 10 received congressional authority to go to war with Iraq at the time of his choosing, on whatever grounds he found adequate, and with or without allied support. Congress abandone

By Alan Caruba Every patriotic American simply must read Winslow T. Wheeler's new book, The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security ($28.95, Naval Institute Press.) Even the Washington Post has published some of his views, such as his August 22, 2004 analysis of the gigantic $416 billion appropriations bill for the Department of Defense in July, which included a mind-boggling $8.9 billion in pork, that is, non-military related spending under cover of helping our fine armed forces. Wheeler has worked on national security issues for over thirty years, serving members in both the Senate and the House. He also worked nine years in the General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog agency. In 2002, he was pressured to resign from the Senate Budget Committee staff because of a commentary he wrote that revealed the extent of self-serving budget-busting going on. He is currently a visiting senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information. His book is a devastating expose. For example, he writes that, after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Senators added $4 billion in "irrelevant and useless projects for their home states to the defense budget. At the same time, they stripped $2.4 billion out of the bill from accounts "that supported military training, weapons maintenance, spare parts, and other military 'readiness' items (just the things soldiers need most) to help pay for the pork. This was done just as the first American casualties were coming home from the fighting in Afghanistan, some of them in boxes." Wheeler is particularly damning in his description of Sen. John McCain, a former Vietnam war prisoner and hero, who, while loudly decrying the waste, has done nothing to stop or even slow it. Another Senator, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Wheeler's former boss, Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), but it is every member of Congress that is involved. "Congress is not just dithering with national security," writes Wheeler, "it is trashing it." Can you imagine a defense appropriation bill stuffed with money for parking garages, fisheries, and gymnasiums? And this was but a small part of the more than 100 amendments added to the 2002 bill to fund the Department of Defense. "Members of Congress add hundreds, nay thousands, of these home state additions, variously called 'member adds', "congressional' or 'line-items', 'state impacts', or just 'pork' to defense-related legislation each year." In the process, "a grand total of $1.1 billion in the FY 2003 O & M budget" was added! And, to be fair, this bill was signed by the President. This isn't just politics as usual. This is politics run amuck! It is the wholesale fleecing of the money taxpayers send the federal government in the belief that it will be wisely and carefully allocated to our defense needs. Nor can Wheeler be accused of partisan politics. As noted, he has worked for members of Congress on both sides of t

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 our Senate: Added $4 Billion in pork projects such as the new army museum in Robert Byrd's state, new parking lots in Ted Stevens stare, a career development center (whatever that is) in Pete Domenici's state. To pay for it they took $2.4 Billion out of the defense bill's accounts that supported training, weapons maintenance, spare parts (just the things soldiers need most). This was done just as the first American casualties were coming home from the fighting in Afghanistan, some of them in boxes. How is this done? How is this hidden from the press (or does the press care)? Is this really the best we can do with an elected Government? Mr. Wheeler spent 31 years working on national security issued for members of the U.S. Senate and the General Accounting Office. He was pressured to resign because of an essay he wrote exposing these antics of Congress. This book is a summary of the ways that the Senate (and Congress) go about their business as usual while young men are dying.