Nation's bloated nuclear spending comes under fire

1. http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/top-news/nations-bloated-nuclear-spending-comes-under-fire/nZwKs/

2. Categories: Economy and National Security

3. Level: National

4. This article concerns a problem that families face.

5. This issue is important to families because it involves billions of dollars of wasteful government spending. It also involves national security.

6. My view on the issue:

Our country's attitudes towards our nuclear arsenal are dangerous and out-dated. Billions of dollars are funneled into maintaining and securing nuclear weaponry and research. There is not enough oversight, there is no accountability, and the results are billions of wasted dollars and unsecured nuclear technology in dangerous locations. We don't need nuclear weaponry on the large scale it exists. More weapons should be dismantled, more facilities should be shut down (especially that one on the fault line... are we really incapable of learning our lesson?), and the spending should be redirected.

The money that we do spend on nuclear programs needs to be more tightly regulated and there obviously needs to be more oversight. There is no excuse for a $213 million dollar security upgrade that doesn't work. Things like this are bound to happen in a society that has such a permissive attitude towards defense spending and seems unwilling to consider the possibility that we can ever spend enough, let alone too much. This sort of incompetence is also bolstered by the fact that the contractors who work with nuclear weapons have a clear hold on those who oversee federal spending. Companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Honeywell have donated over $18 million dollars to the electoral campaigns of these lawmakers.