Everett Dirksen, who served in the House and Senate in the 1950s and ‘60s, was a harsh critic of spending by the federal government. He said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.” Dirksen’s ironic comment would be sadly out of place these days. To cite one egregious example, Donald Trump recently proposed a budget for the Department of Defense of $1.5 trillion for the 2027 fiscal year. That will grow to $1.7 trillion, because Trump is tacking on another $200 billion to fund the war in Iran and other miscellaneous programs. That represents about a shocking and unprecedented doubling of the present budget for the Pentagon.

I write “miscellaneous” because nobody really knows where that money is going or how it is spent. The waste and fraud in the Department of Defense are legendary. The “big five” defense contractors overcharge the Department for almost everything purchased by the 28 separate agencies that function under the Pentagon umbrella. To be more specific, in 2018 Congress mandated an annual audit of Defense spending — and the department has failed every audit. Fifteen of the agencies did not even provide enough information for the auditors to complete their review. And among the unworkable, unnecessary, and wasteful programs of the administration and Defense contractors’ proposals, are the Golden Fleet, the Golden Dome and the Sentinel ICBM projects. While the administration slashes Medicaid and other domestic programs the it could well afford to fund, our national debt soars past $39 trillion due in large part to the obscene spending of the Department of Defense.