Hey, Senator Thune! Want to reduce government spending? Talk to the military about turning down its air conditioners. According to a retired general who was in charge of logistics in Iraq, we spend $20 billion a year air-conditioning tents and other temporary structures. Not the Pentagon, not the general's house on base, just temporary domiciles.
$20 billion: that's more than we spend on space exploration. That's much more than the $1 billion Senator Thune wants to save on ethanol subsidies. And $20 billion in this one real cut would beat the pants off the measly $350 million in cuts Rep. Noem voted for in the House GOP's sham budget deal in April.
We could save a huge chunk of this $20 billion simply by insulating tents. Of course, we could save even more by not invading hot places....
When I was in Iraq, they were insulating tents as fast as they could. The problem was that you cannot insulate them while soldiers are in them...and there was only so much temp tents available. Additionally, for a lot of the out-lying FOBs, like mine, were far down the list for getting insulation. Hopefully this is a lesson learned, and if we get into a ground war with another Hot country, they will start insulating them from the beginning.
Perhaps all this air-conditioning is just a product of a Cold War mentality.