Major kudos to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

During his testimony before Senate Armed Forces Committee, Hegseth was asked by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal if he will support the Major Richard Star Act. Hegseth affirmed his support.

The act was first introduced in 2023 but has not moved forward because of Republican opposition.

Now, with the Defense secretary on record in support of this legislation, its prospect for passage dramatically improves.

And indeed, it should be passed.

Veterans who are injured and disabled in the course of military service, but manage 20 years of service, are eligible to receive full retirement pay plus full disability payments from the Veterans Administration (providing their disability is rated at least 50% on the VA ratings scale).

However, combat or combat-related disabled vets who do not complete 20 years of service cannot receive full payment on both. VA payments for disability must offset retirement pay, dollar for dollar.

Estimates are that there are some 54,000 veterans in this situation.

The Major Richard Star Act will fix this.

It will allow combat injured veterans to get full retirement and disability payment even if they didn’t make it to 20 years of service.

It seems crystal clear to me that the nation owes this to these veterans.

As of March, this year there were 77 co-sponsors in the Senate and 313 in the House.

Republican opposition has been about cost.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of this legislation over the 10-year period 2026-2036 to be $78.1 billion.

With deficits projected as far as the eye can see, and federal debt larger than our entire economy and growing, there’s clearly a huge fiscal problem facing the country.

Democrats, who in general love growing government, seem to be bothered less by this than Republicans.

But our national spending problem is not one of just numbers but of perspective, management and priorities.

Legendary pioneer of business management Peter Drucker noted that when a company that was in trouble would call him in, the first question he would ask the company’s board was “what business are you in?” He found that companies that were in trouble could not clearly define their business.

We’ve got the same problem with our country.

The task of getting our fiscal house in order is not just about numbers. It’s about loss of perspective about what our government should be doing.

Of all our national expenditures, national defense is probably the least controversial of all. Few would question the central importance of national defense and that providing for our national defense is a central and indisputable job of our government.

However, despite the central importance of national defense, as a nation, we have been allocating less and less of our resources to it.

Per the Peter G. Petersen Foundation, the average percent of our GDP that was allocated to defense over the last 50 years was 4.1%. Last year it was 2.9%.

Our defense spending as percent of GDP recently has been less than our interest expense on the national debt.

President Donald Trump’s request for another $500 billion for defense will get it back up to the 50-year 4% average.

Although we think of defense as equipment and technology, central to it is our human capital, including our soldiers.

We need men and women who are prepared to give it all for our country. How can we expect this if we are not prepared to give it all for them.

I will remind again of the GAO report noting fraud in federal spending over $500 billion per year. This is where we should look for efficiency.

However, support for our men and women who serve the nation in our defense forces should be sacred.

The Major Richard Star Act should be passed.

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