Congress Likes to Spend Money

It isn't very often the Pentagon says it doesn't need something, but that is just what military officials recently told Congress. They said they could get by with 11 aircraft carriers rather than the 12 they now have. Mind you, the next country with the most aircraft carriers is the United Kingdom. The UK has two, and they are the small attack carriers. Our carriers have crews of 5,000 to 6,000 people. They carry about 85 aircraft and are supported by an armada of lesser craft like frigates, destroyers, submarines and tankers with aircraft fuel. The cost to run one of these battle groups for just one day is astronomical. You would think that Congress would jump at the chance to save the taxpayers a few dollars. Instead, the Senate added a provision that would require the Pentagon to keep the Navy's fleet of 12 aircraft carriers intact. To make matters worse, the $81 billion dollars in President Bush's emergency supplemental request will bring the total spent so far on a war of choice to more than $300 billion. Bush fired one of his staff a couple of years ago for saying that he estimated the war in Iraq would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion. At that time, Bush assured us the war would not cost anywhere near $100 billion and that Iraqi oil would help pay for the war as well as reparations. To add insult to injury, certain members of Congress are tacking on pork projects for items totally unrelated to the war effort. My hope is that some of us will get angry enough to remember that at the next election.

NICK REINA

Milmay

Letter Published in Atlantic City Press, April 29, 2005 http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/columns/042905LETTSFRIAPR29.cfm

Bush's Road Trips a Waste of Money

There are known costs of the president's plan to privatize Social Security: More national debt, lower Social Security contributions, less assured income to retirees, questionable payments to survivors and the handicapped, and huge profits to investment companies with no guarantee of a stable stock market.

But there is one cost that no one seems to be talking about. Airplanes, helicopters, cars, the staff that travels with them and scores of Secret Service employees to protect everyone while the president and the vice-president crisscross the country. Sixty cities in 60 days, wasn't that their plan? Who's watching the store while they're out of town? All this expense to speak to handpicked crowds, which usually support President Bush but this time have given him some rare opposition. Why has no one calculated the costs of these road trips?

Why not speak on prime-time TV or hold a press conference and answer questions? Probably not something he would want to do, as the more people hear his explanations, the less likely they have been to support them. But just think of the tax dollars Bush could save if he trusted the American people enough to talk directly to them.

BETTIE REINA

Milmay

Letter Published in Atlantic City Press, April 21, 2005 http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/columns/042105LETTERSAPRIL21.cfm