The scariest part of taxes is not that we have to pay them (that’s part of life, right?). What is scary is the waste of our money. I think Maine, known for its Yankee thrift, should be at the top of the list of folks angry about government waste. I have friends who sleep in the barn on cold spring nights to help birth lambs whose fleece they will shear, card, spin, dye and knit to make a sweater. That is a lot of work for a sweater. So how can the same folks take the fact that the Pentagon is the biggest bureaucracy in the world and uses about a quarter of its budget just to support itself.

An efficiency study of the Pentagon was done by the Washington Post that indicated the possibility of recouping $125 billion over 20 years if the Defense Department tightened its belt. Well, that left the DOD scared and they had the study buried. I’m all for supporting our troops. I’m also for a show of force and felt the recent Syrian attack was warranted, but I do not like waste. Maybe it is time we make financial decisions based on studies rather than emotion and special interests. I would like to see an audit of Pentagon spending before any further allocations and I’m going to tell my legislators.

Deborah P. de Rivera
Brunswick