Funding Defense Should Not Be a Political Game

James Carafano / October 19, 2010

Playing politics with national security is reprehensible. But it’s nothing new.

In 1794, Congress passed a law authorizing construction of ships that would form the backbone of the first United States Navy. The politics started almost immediately.

Saving “a few thousand dollars in expenses will be no object compared with the satisfaction a just distribution would afford,” proclaimed Secretary of War Henry Knox as he ordered the six frigates be built in six different shipyards in six different ports. “It was an early example of pork barrel politics, before the term had even been coined,” writes Ian Toll in “Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy.”

The congressional funding came in fits and spurts. The last of the ships did not take to the sea until six years after the project was first approved.

Unfortunately, America’s enemies did not stand idle while Washington dithered over whether it would actually fulfill its constitutional obligation to “provide for the common defense.” By 1795, pirates from the Barbary States were savaging America’s merchant fleet to the point that they demanded a million dollars in “protection” money. That amount — nearly a sixth of the entire federal budget — far exceeded then the cost allotted to build the frigates. (more…)