The Nation - News from May 27, 1985

Excessive profits and overhead in the defense industry exist “because Congress has wanted it that way for 30 years,” Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. said, scoffing at the “simple-mindedness” of Pentagon critics. Lehman, bidding to turn away wrath aimed at military waste in the deficit-reducing budget debate on Capitol Hill, argued in a Washington interview that the root problem is a labyrinth of laws and regulations that invite abuse and excess. He urged a streamlining of procedures to remedy the “horrendousness of the system” and “to liberate the thousands of dedicated defense professionals . . . from their bureaucratic bondage and allow their common sense to prevail.”