Defense Budget Quotes
To a great extent, the same is true in our modern world.
Jefferson was opposed to a standing army or a buildup of revenue even in case of war. He thought that a national surplus might tempt an administration to engage in war. This was one of the biggest differences between the Jeffersonians or Republican Democrats as they called themselves and the Federalists led by George Washington and John Adams. Washington was a strong advocate of military preparedness, while Jefferson believed that a nation which had a strong army and war chest would be too easily tempted to use it. That debate has raged in America since. However, at the beginning of the second world war, the then conservative party, the Republicans, had adopted the Jeffersonian view and it was FDR and the Democrats arguing for armament and preparedness. The United States was terribly unprepared for war, but mobilized rapidly and won the day. Since then both parties have supported military preparedness and the political argument has been over the degree, but there are few Jeffersonians left when it comes to military preparedness.
The Pentagon has the largest budget of any operational government department and makes the most procurements of government agencies. So even if their proportional share of waste were the same as all the other agencies, it would appear, there would be more examples for people to see from the Pentagon. Unfortunately the proportion is very different with a much higher proportion of no bid (sole source contracts). a much higher proporton of moneys spent for which they could not even account. far fewer checks on the procurement officials. The armed services are not all alike howevever. The Army was generally much better than the other services except during the Iraq War reconstruction. The Navy however was by far the worst of the armed services in terms of waste and avoiding the checks and balances of procurement reviews and procedures.
