Murphy's Law: February 1, 2001

Archives

Congress continually pressures the Pentagon to buy more C-130J transports to replace older C-130Hs, but the Pentagon (short of money) has resorted to an old trick. The planes are listed in the "unfunded priority" section of the new budget. Since Congress has (for the last several years) added money to the White House defense budget plan, the unfunded priority list let's Congress know where the uniformed military would like any extra money that turns up to go. Congress can then claim that it is answering a need rather than forcing the Pentagon to buy planes it doesn't want, and the Pentagon can claim that it is setting priorities and working with Congress to meet them. And, since everyone gets what they want, critics get a chance to decry the practice as a "good old boy network" scheme to spend money in key Congressional districts.--Stephen V Cole

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close