The Democratic presidential candidate asserted that making the government more cost effective includes many other options besides cutting assistance for those in need, seeking to begin the process by examining the spending of government agencies.
“What it does mean is taking a hard look at an agency which receives $600 billion per year where there is an immense amount of waste and fraud,” Sanders said.
Sanders explained that on the day before the attacks of September 11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech which was overshadowed by the tragedy, declaring that there are trillions of dollars unaccounted for within the Department of Defense.
He explained that the agency receives some $600 billion annually, and that spending should be examined as an option for finding those areas to cut back spending without taking from American citizens.
The Vermont senator stated that the DOD is the only agency of government which cannot sustain an independent audit.
“You go to them and ask how many private contractors we have. Well, they really don’t know. It’s so complicated, a huge complicated system.”
“And while we have massive cost overruns with defense contractors, we’ve got deployment after deployment for our soldiers, and we’ve got military families on food stamps. So maybe we want to change that.”
The Vermont senator also spoke of some 6,700 US service members who have died in military operations in Iraq and beyond, and over 500,000 returning home with post traumatic stress disorder or brain injuries. The candidate stated that he would not be so quick to rush the US military off to fight other people’s wars on the other side of the world.
Sanders received an enthusiastic and sustained standing ovation from the crowded room at the end of the event.
