What A Waste: President Trump Wants A Military Parade That Could Cost Millions

BOSTON (CBS) -- An effort to honor military personnel and veterans might seem to be non-controversial on paper. But President Trump's plan for a major military parade is drawing widespread resistance from fellow Republicans - and his own administration.

This confrontation has been brewing since last summer, when Mr. Trump attended the Bastille Day parade in Paris and was so impressed, he started talking about staging a massive show of military troops and hardware here. "It was one of the greatest parades I've ever seen, it was two hours on the button and it was military might," the president said at a September meeting with French President Macron.

"We may do something like that on July 4th in Washington, down Pennsylvania Avenue," Mr. Trump said to laughter, including his own. But it turns out he wasn't kidding.

Planning is reportedly underway for a huge show of military hardware on Veterans' Day next fall. But parades like this don't come cheap.

The last major military parade celebrating victory in the 1991 gulf war cost an estimated 12 million dollars. And now, 27 years later?

"I've seen various different cost estimates from between $10 million and $30 million depending on the size of the parade, the scope of it, the length of it, those types of things," said Budget Director Mick Mulvaney last month.

What a waste. And beyond the president, few seem to want this parade.

Today the secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin, told a congressional subcommittee, "we put our resources and our efforts into the recognition at Arlington National Cemetery that day. We have no plans to change that."

Even GOP military hawks in Congress like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham have been dismissive. "I'm not looking for a Soviet-style hardware display, that's not who we are," he said.

And when the newspaper Military Times polled 50,000 of its readers online last month, 89 percent of them said they saw it as a waste of money.

Millions for a parade that seems more about ego than anything else, or directing that money to the many unmet needs of veterans and active-duty servicemembers? Congress will make the final call, unless the administration chooses to use funds already appropriated for other uses.

If you see government spending that strikes you as wasteful, drop me an email at Keller@wbztv.com, or reach out on Twitter, @kelleratlarge.