by Bob Barr | Jul 5, 2021 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerMost taxpayers would agree, even if at times grudgingly, that the top priority for expenditure of federal dollars is our national defense, including the technology and hardware with which to win wars, that is, weapon systems. These priorities are funded according to an acquisition system as complex as it is costly, perhaps best illustrated by the $1.7 trillion F-35 “Lightning” fighter jet program that has been plagued by numerous delays and cost increases over the course of its two decade long development history.Broadly considered, the process by which weapons systems are funded – including everything from four-wheel drive vehicles to massive aircraft carries capable of launching dozens of long-range fighter jets — is known as “weapon system acquisition.” It is a labyrinthine process that has more in common with a Rube Goldberg cartoon contraption than a well-oiled machine. The process is fully understood only by a tightly knit fraternity of current and former top-level Department of Defense officials, key Members of Congress and their staff, and the handful of major corporate defense contractors, the largest by far of which is Lockheed Martin.As stated by the U.S. Department of Defense in a recent “Program Acquisition Cost by Weapon System,” the goal of this crucial component of our national defense is simple: to ensure that the weapon systems available to and utilized by our men and women in uniform “are unmatched throughout the world, ensuring that U.S. military forces have the advantage over any adversary.”Few objective observers would dispute the proposition that our fighting forces and global capabilities remain the best in the world. There is, however, considerable room to...
by Bob Barr | Jun 30, 2021 | Townhall Article |
TownhallIt is not clear exactly when it became such an awful burden on citizens to vote on one particular day at a pre-assigned polling place, but somewhere along the line it became so difficult that pressures on state governments resulted in wholesale changes to how, when, and where people actually vote. The changes thus wrought has thrown the proverbial monkey wrench into what had been a well-established, universally understood, and simple system of voting. Vast expansion of mail-in balloting, coupled with weeks-long “early voting,” has created a Rube Goldberg-like system that has severely undermined voters’ confidence in elections. It also has planted seeds for myriad legal challenges, such as the one filed last week by the Biden Department of Justice challenging Georgia’s recently enacted ballot reform measures. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who still harbors deep resentment of Republicans for refusing to confirm him as a Supreme Court associate justice in the waning weeks of the Obama Administration, was joined at the Justice Department podium last Friday by Kristen Clarke. Together they announced that Georgia was being sued for violating the Voting Rights Act. Kristen Clarke heads the Department’s Civil Rights Division and has long advocated that America is a deeply racist country. Her current position provides the perfect vehicle with which to drive home her opinions, by alleging that laws designed to make it harder to cheat at the ballot box, are nothing more that disguised measures to perpetuate systemic disenfranchisement of Black voters. The strings for this litigation will be pulled by Justice Department lawyers but the venue will be the federal District Court in Atlanta, which not coincidentally is the home...
by Bob Barr | Jun 28, 2021 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerEmperor Nero is said to have fiddled while Rome burned. President Joe Biden does not even offer the American people the benefit of music while cities across our country are aflame in murders.Instead, the president has decided to target for punishment the one group of businesses in the front line of ensuring that firearms do not fall into the hands of criminals: Federal Firearms Licensees or “FFLs,” which includes businesses engaged in the retail sales of firearms and ammunition.These businesses are heavily regulated by government at all levels, most especially the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The regulatory regimen each of these tens of thousands of businesses must follow in order not to lose their federally issued license to sell firearms includes maintaining detailed records for every firearm that comes into or leaves their possession. The businesses are subject to periodic, often unannounced visits by ATF personnel who can demand access to their records and inventory.Every firearm sold by an FFL must be accompanied by a federal form meticulously filled out by the prospective purchaser, double-checked by the salesperson and then submitted electronically or by phone to the FBI for a background check before the purchaser may take possession of the gun. Additionally, it is a federal felony offense for an FFL to permit a so-called “straw purchase,” that is, allowing the purchaser of record to buy the gun for someone else not lawfully qualified to possess it.These myriad requirements apply whether the firearm is a .22 caliber derringer, a 12-ga. pump shotgun or an AR-15 rifle, which is by far the most popular rifle owned...
