Scout- I don't get the "hating" on West Point line. I don't hate West Point and if the Army was flush- then have at it . But frankly I think this is politically tone deaf and IMO is a bad time to be spending money that isn't REALLY an Army priority. After last weeks budget/deficit debacle played out- I would think that the Military service's would be hypersensitive, but maybe they haven't quite grasped the magnitude of the onrushing financial steamroller.
Against that backdrop- should the Army be spending money on a project like this? I know how projects get pushed and I know what passes for "hard questions" - rarely do the "hard questions" (to use your line) include really hard questions like: "How badly do we need this
compared to someone elses priorities". That's not the government way. I understand investing in capital projects. But truthfully- unless the barracks are structurally really in bad shape or need major renovations- relieving perceived overcrowding in the USMA barracks is pretty fluffy in a time of rapidly oncoming serious budget constraints. (Overcrowding compared to what & who? I can think of a number of places that don't have nearly the number of applicants vying for available slots, so I can't see that it has affected their ability to gain and retain quality applicants. And- the school hasn't grown (and legally will not grow) so what changed to cause "overcrowding that they haven't been successfully coping with for quite some time?)
The Army has real priorities it should be funding- maybe this is one, but it seems pretty hard for me to swallow. I personally think this is a case of "we got it authorized so lets spend it". I don't put that much credence in the "they rigorously prioritize this stuff" theory. I've seen too many new construction projects on bases that are on the list to be "Brac"ed to blindly believe that only the highest needs from the larger picture make it on the list.
This is real money: To put this in perspective: while $131 million is chump change for Uncle Sam vice the Defense budget total (forget comparing it to the overall budget- it's not even a fart in a whirlwind
) but by any other standard it's real money. It's 30% more than the entire budget request for the USMMA in 2012. It's 10% of the entire USCG requested Acquisition Budget for 2012 and 1-1/2% of the entire budget for the Coast Guard; and it is about the same amount that the Army has requested for replacing 15 Kiowa helicopters lost in Afghanistan and is only about 10% less than the Army has requested for upgrading the Kiowa fleet.
Sorry- I don't hate West Point but I also think that this is really bad timing and reflects some curious and rather myopic priorities for the Army in an age where they are likely to wind up cutting back on mission critical equipment because of budget constraints. Maybe I'm wrong.I am not really interesting in getting into a huge forum flame war as I have a lot of respect for scoutpilot- so I'm letting it go here.