- For years, DoD — including the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Service Chiefs, have been crying poormouth on military health care and trying to use military beneficiaries as cash cows to fund what should be 100% taxpayer-funded, specifically lifetime health care to career military personnel.
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- Now, DoD comes to Congress saying that they have $708 million dollars extra in their health care accounts that they wish to “reprogram” to unspecified “higher priorities.”
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- Government Executive magazine lays out the story, first below. Military Officers Association of America provides the supporting documentation, the DoD reprogramming request (second below) and a letter to SECDEF from a bunch of curious Congressmen (third below).
Kelley Lunney, GovExec.com, July 27, 2012
Phi Beta Iota: If Leon Panetta had integrity, he would realize that the best thing he can do for America [and for a President seeking reelection] — and for the troops that take 80% of the casualties while receivfing 1% of the budget– would be to cut the 50% of the Pentagon that is fraud, waste, and abuse. Unfortunately for Panetta, knowing which half to cut takes intelligence, and no one now serving as an “intelligence leader” can help him. Intelligence without integrity is not decision-support, it is pork–and from here, it is rancid pork, shameful to all who believe in America the Beautiful and a government that is supposed to be acting in the public interest. Side note: this is a “base” reprogramming request–the base is generally not reviewed by Congress or the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). If the President wants to be re-elected (all signs point to an easy win over Romney) and to lead America back to prosperous times, now, before the election, is the time to make some critical Cabinet changes, sponsor the Open Source Agency as a Presidential initiative, and generally get a grip on reality at home as well as abroad. As with the dream of a classified tablet, this is not something the US Intelligence Community can help achieve, under its present leadership.
See Also:
2012 PREPRINT FOR COMMENT: The Craft of Intelligence
2009 Intelligence for the President–AND Everyone Else
2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Retrospective
David Isenberg: President Wants What IC Cannot Give – With Comment by Robert Steele
Open Source Agency: Executive Access Point
Below is four-page Congressional letter to SECDEF on the topic:
