Friday, April 1, 2011

Travel Cards for ALL Soldiers

When I hear the budget debates carried out on TV, one refrain is "Don't cut the military budget."  That is set in opposition to "The government is wasting money."

It's as if camouflage clothes somehow washes the waste out of the system.  It doesn't.

No I can't comment on $35 billion projects like new tanker  planes or fighter jets, but I just heard about a small project I can understand.

I just heard that all National Guard soldiers will be issued travel cards.  It makes sense for the full timers, but us weekend warriors will use those cards once or twice a year.  We will all fill out long forms, learn all the security procedures, forget them, then bother our full-time staff about the money we did not get.

The military is a government bureaucracy just like any other.  And it is a deep enough hierarchy that a mid-level manager can dream up new procedures that can waste millions of dollars.

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