House Strikes Out in Disciplining Security Spending

James Carafano / February 17, 2011

In voting to prop up funding for COPS and fire grants—two discredited programs that fail to deliver any bang for our security bucks—the House calls in to question its credibility that it is going to cut spending while not compromising on our security.

What security hawk could argue that when it comes to government spending, “everything,” including security spending, is on the table? After all, defense is under-funded: The Pentagon has been on a decades-long “procurement holiday,” failing to modernize its aging fleet of vehicles, ships, and planes. Money ill-spent elsewhere could go toward buying the equipment our men and women will need to defend us in the years ahead. As for homeland security, “feel-good” programs that spread federal largesse but do little to actually make us safer drain dollars from the work that Washington really needs to be doing. (more…)