Last week President Barack Obama made a speech outlining his plans for executive action on immigration policy. Not two minutes in, the president spoke of border security saying, “Today we have more agents and technology deployed to secure our southern border than at any time in our history.” Given the history of wasteful and expensive border security efforts in the last several years – from the always overbudget and ultimately abandoned virtual fence to the similarly budget-busting physical fence – we at Taxpayers for Common Sense pay special attention when we hear about efforts to increase border security.

The president also spoke about bipartisan bill S. 744 passed in the Senate last year. This bill included a section devoted to purchasing hardware to supposedly secure the southern border, and it would have increased funding for border control personnel by $30 billion and fund an additional $12 billion in hardware.

My organization has written extensively about the border bill on many occasions as well as talked about it in the press. We even illustrated some of the bill’s most absurd features, including a provision that directs the purchase of certain helicopters that are no longer in production. And while I appreciate the political realities that any comprehensive immigration reform will likely include border security elements to garner enough votes for passage, the plans in this funding bill were more effective at lining the pockets of government contractors than actually contributing much to U.S. security.

Unfortunately, as so often happens in Washington these days, we deal with policy problems by throwing money at them. But this isn’t the 1980s, and we are trying to live within our actual means. Occasionally, fits of fiscal discipline break out, like the caps put in place by the Budget Control Act. But just as often, we find Washington officials immediately finding ways around whatever meager controls have just been enacted.

And the reality is that not all problems can be solved by applying military style hardware to them. For instance, the domestic unrest in Ferguson, Missouri put a spotlight on the Section 1033 program, what the Pentagon calls its “Domestic Preparedness Support Initiative.” This is the program that transfers military hardware to local law enforcement. And by “transfers” we mean just that: No money changes hands. As we have previously opined at Taxpayers for Common Sense, this is like the Pentagon having a yard sale but not actually charging anything. As the summer passed, we saw stories about the staggering amounts of heavy hardware spreading out across the country. You have to ask if the residents of Deschutes County, Oregon feel safer now that local law enforcement has an armored vehicle and grenade launchers.

The Pentagon’s own calculations value the hardware given to municipalities at more than $5 billion – almost halfway to the $12 billion in last year’s Senate bill on border security. A large portion of the systems being given away for free are actually night vision devices. And a quick look at the laundry list of items that this latest Senate border bill would buy shows that night vision technology is high on that list.

So here’s a crazy thought – maybe the Pentagon ought to start a Section 1033-type program for their brethren at the Department of Homeland Security. Everybody wins! Especially the American taxpayer who paid for that equipment the Department of Defense apparently no longer needs. An interagency swap meet first – before we spend more money to give us a false sense of border security.