Pentagon Ends Secret Budget

By Trevor Lenpag
Published: July 4th, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced today that it would eliminate more than $60 billion worth of secret programs that have taken over an increasing share of the defense budget over the last 30 years.

“There is no place, in a democracy, for massive programs hidden out of sight of the public eye,” said Pentagon spokesperson Jackson Burke. “The Founding Fathers understood that sunlight is the best disinfectant, which is why they wrote the receipts and expenditures clause into the Constitution.” Burke was referring to Article I Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress must publish a full accounting of government expenditures. The Pentagon’s black budget has long been controversial for its apparent violation of Article I Section 9.

“We have carefully reviewed all of the programs contained in the black budget,” said Mr. Burke. Some of them we have made public, and we have canceled the remainder.” Canceled programs include the C.I.A.’s controversial “extraordinary rendition” program and the N.S.A.’s domestic surveillance program.

Asked about the national security consequence of eliminating classified programs, Burke said, “Democracies can only function properly when there is maximum transparency. Sacrificing our democracy in the name of national security is the ultimate threat to the principles that this country was founded on.”