Wall Street Journalさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Wall Street JournalInstagram)「At midnight Saturday, absent a continuing-resolution agreement, the U.S. government will shut down. Another self-destructive event is set to occur at the same time: Nearly $11 billion will disappear from the Defense Department’s hands, writes @repgallagher for @wsjopinion. This isn’t a new problem. In the last decade, more than 125 billion defense dollars have evaporated as a result of outdated purchasing processes that aren’t in sync with appropriations timelines. If defense appropriations aren’t spent by the end of the fiscal year, they expire. The money is held in abeyance for five years, where it is rarely used. On the last day of the abeyance period, the money goes back to the Treasury, where it feeds the mandatory-spending welfare state. As our military sends badly needed dollars back to the Treasury, our greatest adversary, the CCP, is engaged in the largest sustained peacetime military buildup since World War II. The military can’t afford to lose nearly $11 billion in buying power. That is why I introduced the Funding Indo-Pacific Readiness and Enhancing Stockpiles Act. It would reroute these canceling funds to enhance near-term deterrence vis-à-vis China and prevent their misuse for nondefense purposes. Congress must fight to ensure every dollar already appropriated to the Pentagon is spent smartly. We can’t waste the next two years waiting for a new president to fix this problem magically. Even as we fight over future defense spending, let’s use past appropriations to solve our most pressing defense problems. Read more at the link in @wsjopinion's bio. Photo: Tannen Maury/Shutterstock」9月29日 23時29分