If you’ve been awake at all the past week, you’ve no doubt seen the news stories of Obama’s plans to cut defense spending by increasing the military’s insurance premiums and co-pays. And by now you’ve probably heard about the $744,000 soccer field which is being built for detainees at Gitmo.
Here’s my thought — if Washington wants to cut defense spending, they should really come out to the military bases and sit down with the spouses for dinner and social evening. We can share all sorts of ways to cut defense spending — WITHOUT taking money from our active duty and retired military personnel… just ask us!
If we had leaders from Washington over for a spouse’s dinner, I’m sure we’d discuss topics like how the government should crack down on businesses that take advantage of the government and taxpayer. We’d be happy to share with them the COUNTLESS stories of when our military spouse needed to stay in a hotel while on official business, and the rate the government was charged for his room was considerably higher than what you or I would pay for the same room on the same night. Here’s a simplified example: Hotel administrators at “Acme Hotel” know that Uncle Sam will pay $119 a night in their area for a room. They advertise their rooms online for $89/night and probably charge a walk-in customer a little more. So basically, the hotel is ripping off our dear old Uncle – and all of us as taxpayers – to the tune of about $20-$30… per night… per military member traveling on official orders. Now, I don’t know how many hotel rooms are paid for by government money each year, but in years as an Air Force spouse, I’ve met a lot of other spouses, and trust me, it’s enough to add up to a significant amount of money! Why aren’t we cracking down on these hotels for taking advantage of the system? They should be giving our government the same rate they would give you or me. And if they aren’t, they should really be held accountable. You know, remove them from the list of approved properties? That should get their attention.
Seriously, if you want to save money, don’t take it from US… the people serving and protecting… but feel free to ask us for ideas of where you can cut or what you can change that would benefit the taxpayer and the military as a whole.
We’d tell you that it’s ridiculous to pay $200 for a tool you can get at Lowe’s or Home Depot for $40. So why are so many private companies able to get contracts with our government that allow them to have the “monopoly” on certain supplies and products? It’s absurd. And it’s commonplace.
We’d tell you that rather than hiring a G-12 government employee to do an administrative task, you should give that task to the Captain or Major down the hall who’s more than qualified to do the job, and hire a G-6 (at a much lower salary than the G-12) to input data or update slides, which is something the Captain or Major has been tasked to do! Anyone who’s graduated high school can update a slide or input data into a spreadsheet.
Look, I could go on for days about things the government could focus on to cut defense spending — things I’ve seen from the military spouse perspective that doesn’t usually make the media headlines — things we discuss over coffee and playdates. But frankly, I don’t have time to blog about it all now. My husband is away on military orders, and I’ve got to hold down the fort while he’s away. My point is, there are things Obama can do that will cut spending in the defense budget without touching our income or our benefits. And I’m sure I’m not the only military spouse who’d show up for a dinner meeting to help him figure it out. That’s all.
Oh, and we’d be sure to tell him our thoughts on that soccer field!
