Politics trumps defense thrift

Presidential threats to veto unwarranted defense spending went out the window last week when President Obama, with considerable flourish, signed the annual defense authorization bill. The bill includes a duplicative multi-billion dollar fighter engine project opposed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and hundreds of earmarks costing over $2.5 billion to benefit congressional constituencies. Once again, politics prevailed over fiscal responsibility.

Nevertheless, Mr. Obama used a bill-signing ceremony last week to claim victory over "special interests and their exotic projects that are years behind schedule and billions over budget, entrenched lobbyists pushing weapons that even our military says it doesn't want and doesn't need, now, [and] the impulse in Washington to win political points back home by building things that we don't need at costs we can't afford."

He cited, among other things, the congressional decision to terminate the F-22 fighter project and a new presidential helicopter costing nearly as much as Air Force One. "I won't be flying on that," he said.

But the president acknowledged that the bill fell short of his promise to block unnecessary spending. The defense bill, he said, "isn't perfect," he said, recognizing that it only eliminates some of the waste in defense spending. "There's still more waste we need to cut."

Although he called out unnamed "special interests" and "entrenched lobbyists" for perpetuating "waste" he did not mention that he had withdrawn his threat to veto the bill if it contained, as it does, a second engine production line for the F-35 fighter included by Congress over the protest of Defense Secretary Gates. Nor did he call out Congress for padding the bill with billions for earmarks he opposed.

Apparently, the decision of the congressional leadership to include an unrelated "hate" crimes provision in the defense bill made it very difficult for the president to exercise his veto. The provision to define attacks on homosexuals because of their sexual orientation as a "hate" crime requiring harsher sentencing fulfilled a campaign promise, and was extolled by the president during his press conference. Hate crime has been likened by critics to thought crime, and as such is a particularly controversial notion. The measure should have been considered on its own merits, not tacked onto the defense bill.

Mr. Obama doesn't want to quarrel with a spendthrift Congress. He needs Congress to pass legislation he seeks to change the nation. His budget calls for huge spending increases in a variety of domestic programs that to many deficit hawks sound just like "the impulse ... to win political points" by spending money the nation can't afford.

"Changing the culture in Washington will take time and sustained effort," Mr. Obama said.

It will never happen, however, unless the president learns to just say no.