Submitted for Publication August 7, 2025
Dear Editor:
The bipartisan op-ed by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and Democrat Chris Coons backing a larger military budget to win the arms race with “America’s adversaries” is seriously incomplete. Nowhere do these Senators point to the absence of Congressional oversight of the Pentagon contractors’ widely documented waste, fraud and abuse.
Nowhere was there any reference to the Department of Defense’s admitted violations since 1992 of the Congressional requirements for all federal agencies to submit an audited budget annually to Congress.
Nowhere do these Senators support ‘peace negotiations’ for ongoing or approaching conflicts. Nowhere is there any mention of renewing and extending existing U.S. arms control treaties with other countries.
Is it too much to expect our lawmakers in bipartisan agreement to give the Pentagon more money than the Generals asked for year after year, to start saving taxpayers money by “waging peace” to foresee and forestall military conflict through long-overdue international treaties, including cyber-security?
When is a Pentagon budget that now absorbs over 50% of the federal government’s entire operating expenditures ENOUGH?
Think of President Eisenhower’s specific warnings about how a runaway military budget takes away from investing in necessities, many life-saving, back in our country.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
[This a letter that the Post agreed to publish. They then informed us that there was going to be some delay. Weeks later, they informed us that they were not going to publish it at all.]