Tag: Governmental Waste

Abolish The Pentagon?

I write a lot about the abuses of the Pentagon and some to think that I would like nothing better than to see an end to the Pentagon.

That is not at all what I am calling for in my writings.

Yes the US has a duty to protect US shores….but for me they do not have a duty to fund and supply endless wars across the globe.

The Congress and the president’s admin is ass deep in the pockets of the arms industry….it is all about the cash in their wallets and  not what best and moral.

The Biden administration requested $886 billion for national defense for Fiscal Year 2024, a sum far higher in real terms than the peaks of the Korean or Vietnam wars or at the height of the Cold War.

That figure could go even higher under the terms of the debt ceiling deal reached by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as hawks in Congress push for an emergency package that could not only provide aid needed to defend Ukraine but also tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for the Pentagon’s regular budget.

This is a terrible idea. There is no reason to add funds to the Pentagon budget, as documented in a report released today by the Quincy Institute.

The enormous sums lavished on the Pentagon are being marshaled in support of a flawed National Defense Strategy that attempts to go everywhere and do everything, from winning a war with Russia or China, to intervening in Iran or North Korea, to continuing to fight a global war on terror that includes military activities in at least 85 countries. 

Note to Congress: there is no emergency that would require more military funding

The Defense Department must be re-named to  to what it was once called….its true calling….the War Department.

Do not worry…the Biden posse will use every opportunity to get more money for Ukraine (are they working that hard for you or your family?)

The recent ‘mutiny’ in Russia will help get all that lovely cash for Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s brief rebellion against the Russian government has given hawks in Congress more ammunition to argue for additional spending on the Ukraine war, POLITICO reported Tuesday.

…

The crisis in Russia came after House and Senate panels approved their versions of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA is capped at $886 billion under the debt ceiling deal reached between the White House and House Republicans, but the limit does not apply to emergency supplemental funds, which is how spending on the Ukraine war has been authorized.

Three arms industry lobbyists told POLITICO that they believe the Prigozhin uprising will help hawks argue for a supplemental spending package for the Pentagon and Ukraine.

The White House is expected to ask Congress to authorize more spending on Ukraine via supplemental funds, but it’s not clear when that will happen. The Pentagon claimed last week that an “accounting error” has freed up an additional $6.2 billion that can be spent on military aid for Ukraine, giving the administration more time before it needs to make the request. So far, Congress has authorized $113 billion to spend on the war.

(antiwar.com)

But not to concern yourself….we have a deal on spending, right?

Congress spared military-related programs any cuts while freezing all other categories of discretionary spending at the fiscal year 2023 level (except support for veterans). Indeed, lawmakers set the budget for the Pentagon and for other national security programs like nuclear-related work developing nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy at the level requested in the administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal — a 3.3% increase in military spending to a whopping total of $886 billion. Consider that preferential treatment of the first order and, mind you, for the only government agency that’s failed to pass a single financial audit!

Even so, that $886 billion hike in Pentagon and related spending is likely to prove just a floor, not a ceiling, on what will be allocated for “national defense” next year. An analysis of the deal by the Wall Street Journal found that spending on the Pentagon and veterans’ care — neither of which is frozen in the agreement — is likely to pass $1 trillion next year.

Compare that to the $637 billion left for the rest of the government’s discretionary budget. In other words, public health, environmental protection, housing, transportation, and almost everything else the government undertakes will have to make do with not even 45% of the federal government’s discretionary budget, less than what would be needed to keep up with inflation. (Forget addressing unmet needs in this country.)

How a New Budget Loophole Could Send Pentagon Spending Soaring Even Higher

SO do not abolish the War Department….just rein in the spending of two bit leaders that are only in it for the ‘cash’.

This country needs rescuing from the arms of the fat cats that just want profit….could care less about you or your family.

Stop being an idiot!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Yet Another Failure

I have been very vocal on my opposition to the waste of American taxpayer cash…..there is waste at every level of our government but the most wasteful is the Pentagon who seems to get more cash than they ask for in their budget requests.

And yet they cannot keep up with their waste…..and yet they failed yet another audit of their books.

Department of Defense revealed that it had failed its fifth consecutive audit. 

“I would not say that we flunked,” said DoD Comptroller Mike McCord, although his office did note that the Pentagon only managed to account for 39 percent of its $3.5 trillion in assets. “The process is important for us to do, and it is making us get better. It is not making us get better as fast as we want.”

The news came as no surprise to Pentagon watchers. After all, the U.S. military has the distinction of being the only U.S. government agency to have never passed a comprehensive audit.

But what did raise some eyebrows was the fact that DoD made almost no progress in this year’s bookkeeping: Of the 27 areas investigated, only seven earned a clean bill of financial health, which McCord described as “basically the same picture as last year.”

Given this accounting disaster, it should come as no surprise that the Pentagon has a habit of bad financial math. This is especially true when it comes to estimating the cost of weapons programs.

The Pentagon’s most famous recent boondoggle is the F-35 program, which has gone over its original budget by $165 billion to date. But examples of overruns abound: As Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-RI) wrote in 2020, the lead vessel for every one of the Navy’s last eight combatant ships came in at least 10 percent over budget, leading to more than $8 billion in additional costs.

And another major overrun is poised to happen soon, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office. 

The Navy plans to expand its ship production in an effort to maintain an edge over China, with a particular focus on a new attack submarine and destroyer ship. The Pentagon has proposed three versions of this plan at an average cost of $27 billion per year between 2023 and 2052, a 10 percent jump from current annual shipbuilding costs. 

But the CBO says this is a big underestimate. The independent agency’s math says the average annual cost of this shipbuilding initiative will be over $31 billion, meaning that the Navy is underestimating costs by $120 billion over the program’s life.

The Pentagon fails its fifth audit in a row

The DoD keeps flushing cash down the toilet and no one cares or even knows where this cash goes.

When will the American people start caring where their money goes….maybe they should focus on the Pentagon and less time worrying about meals for seniors or hungry kids.

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–04Dec20

Let’s talk about HHS…Department of Health and Human Services….it is in control of Social Security, Medicare, etc…..first the good news…..

The idiot in charge of the Trumpian HHS, Atlas, has resigned…..

A special adviser to President Trump on the pandemic, who had been criticized for his views on stopping the spread of the coronavirus, resigned Monday. Dr. Scott Atlas, who is not an infectious disease expert, got the job in August after Trump saw his appearances on Fox News, the Hill reports. During his brief tenure, Atlas told the people of Michigan they should “rise up” against coronavirus restrictions, criticized restrictions on Russian state television, and posted on Twitter that face masks don’t work—a tweet that was blocked. In his resignation letter, per Fox, he told Trump, “As time went on, like all scientists and health policy scholars, I learned new information and synthesized the latest data from around the world, all in an effort to provide you with the best information to serve the greater public good.”

 

As a special government employee, Atlas was hired for a 130-day tenure that would have ended this week. He made his resignation effective Tuesday. The neuroradiologist had butted heads with White House Coronavirus Task Force members, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, per the AP. Before the holiday, per NBC, he suggested Americans enjoy Thanksgiving in large groups because it might be the last one for some people. Atlas’ other employer, Stanford University, at one point issued a statement disavowing his positions. Atlas “has expressed views that are inconsistent with the university’s approach in response to the pandemic,” Stanford said, while confirming that it supports “using masks, social distancing, and conducting surveillance and diagnostic testing.”

Good riddance!

Now the bad news….HHS has won the Golden Horseshoe Award for pissing away taxpayer cash…..

The Golden Horseshoe is a weekly designation from Just the News intended to highlight egregious examples of wasteful taxpayer spending by the government. The award is named for the horseshoe-shaped toilet seats for military airplanes that cost the Pentagon a whopping $640 each back in the 1980s. 

This week, our award goes to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for spending $106.7 billion on improper payments during 2019.

Improper payments are defined under federal law as “payments made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason.”

https://justthenews.com/accountability/waste-fraud-and-abuse/hold-hhs-spent-1067-billion-improper-payments-2019-less-15

This award use to be named the “Golden Fleece Award”….why cannot the taxpayer recovery the cash that idiot piss away?

Time to re-write the rules for proper execution of governmental programs….

A pipe dream on my part I know….but it feels good to rant.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

National Security Crisis

Here we go!

It seems everyone has a national security crisis they want to champion…..and each one helps DoD rape the Treasury of funds.

Just another justification for more money, more money, more money…….

The National Defense Strategy Commission began as a congressional panel to review America’s national defense strategy. It turned into yet another justification for ever-greater military spending. In the panel’s view, America is weak, isolated, beleaguered, and endangered. Unless military spending is greatly increased, Washington will lose its ability to run the world and a new dark age will envelop the earth.

Indeed, the barbarians are already at the gates. Complained the NDSC: “The security and wellbeing of the United States are at greater risk than at any time in decades.”

That, alas, is to be expected since “America’s military superiority—the hard-power backbone of its global influence and national security—has eroded to a dangerous degree.” Foreign conquest may be just one battle away. “Rivals and adversaries are challenging the United States on many fronts and in many domains,” the NDSC says. Not just China and Russia, but Cuba and Venezuela. What is a superpower to do?

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/congress-creates-a-commission-to-justify-military-waste/

NO MORE!

Please….it is time for the Congress to help check the Pentagon budget.

Granted it will be hard especially with so many Congresspeople on the payroll of the defense contractors.

The US can NO longer afford more wars they cannot afford the ones they fight now.

War is good business!

The United States has now been continuously at war for more than seventeen years. It is still fighting an active war in Afghanistan, has yet to fully defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq – much less establish a state of lasting security in either country – and is playing a role in low level conflicts against extremist and terrorists in many other parts of the world.

The U.S. government, however, has never developed a convincing method of reporting on the cost of the wars, and its estimates are a confusing morass of different and conflicting Departmental, Agency, and other government reporting that leave major gaps in key areas during FY2001-FY2019.

It has never provided useful forecasts of future cost, instead providing empty “placeholder” numbers or none. It has failed to find any useful way to tie the cost estimates it does release to its level of military and civil activity in each conflict or found any way to measure the effectiveness of its expenditures or tie them to a credible strategy to achieve some form of victory.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/americas-military-spending-and-uncertain-costs-its-wars-need-transparent-reporting

DoD is looking to ask Congress for even more funds…..”war” funds…….

The U.S. Defense Department is planning to ask Congress for a massive increase to a controversial war account often criticized as a “slush fund” in order to circumvent mandatory spending limits, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions.

The increase would amount to a reversal for President Donald Trump’s White House budget director, former Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney, who for years campaigned against what he saw as former President Barack Obama’s abuse of the account, calling it a “slush fund.” After he was tapped for the job, Mulvaney told Senate lawmakers that he would seek to eliminate the fund altogether.

https://outline.com/VpU9ga

Like I said…..the price is too damn high!

AMERICANS…….. speak up…..Enough Is Enough!

The Golden Fleece

Back in the 1970’s a bunch of Senators started a thing called the Golden Fleece Award….it was an award given for the best governmental waste of taxpayer money…..one of the most popular and enduring icons of American politics, Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Award embodied both outrage and humor as it put the public spotlight on waste and abuse of taxpayer money.

Maybe it is time for the award to be picked up by the MSM and inform the public of how their money is being pissed away……

Who could forget it? There were the $37 screws (no need to say who was getting screwed), the $2,043 nut (McDonnell Douglas made it specially for the U.S. Navy), the $7,622 coffee pot, the $74,165 aluminum ladder, and the $640 plastic toilet seats for the Air Force. All of those examples of Pentagon waste were from ancient times, the 1970s and 1980s when such revelations still generated literally hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. These days, in the age of America’s never-ending credit-card wars and a Pentagon budget eternally going through the roof, stories of that sort are surprisingly rare. It’s as if that budget and the waste that goes with it has, by now, become such a strikingly bipartisan Washington phenomenon that the details hardly matter. Who’s going to be shocked? Who’s going to complain? Who would possibly contest anything the Pentagon did or spent for American “safety” and “security”?

So I recently felt a wave of almost Trumpian nostalgia for those long-gone days of American “greatness,” or at least well-publicized great wastefulness, when I stumbled across an obscure piece about the $10,000 toilet seats the Air Force is presently buying for its Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport planes. Admit it: even taking inflation into account, that’s impressive! That’s waste on a scale that should make any American proud! Now, imagine that, as TomDispatch regular William Hartung points out today, when it comes to government investment in the American economy and our disintegrating infrastructure, there really is nothing much left but the Pentagon and its $10,000 toilet seats. It should make your heart beat faster to know that if anything is going to lift the economy long term, it’s going to be Pentagon spending. If that isn’t MAGA, what is?

https://original.antiwar.com/william-d-hartung/2018/07/01/weaponized-keynesianism-in-washington/

Maybe focus on the trillions with a “T” from the Pentagon…..

A Department of Defense inspector general’s report released last week offered a jaw-dropping insight into just how bad the military’s auditing system is.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the behemoth Indianapolis-based agency that provides finance and accounting services for the Pentagon’s civilian and military members, could not provide adequate documentation for $6.5 trillion worth of year-end adjustments to Army general fund transactions and data.

I am sure that this is NOT the only mismanagement of taxpayers funds……why not focus on those and bring the pain to the waste?

Closing Thought–29Sep17

Come Fly With Me!

It appears that there is  problem in DC…..Sec of HHS, Price, has been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.

Ever noticed that when the GOP is NOT in power they are staunch opponents of any wasteful spending….and then they take the power lead and they piss money away like there is no tomorrow.

The GOPers start looking for ways to get “free” stuff for themselves and their families….well that is what happened with Price…..seems he does not like the inconvenience of flying coach….

Price has booked a plethora of private flights to take him around to do his worse as the Sec of HHS…..to the tune of about $1 million in costs.

He has been chastised and has agreed to reimburse the government….

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is apologizing for taking costly charter flights on the taxpayer’s dime and says he is cooperating with investigations into his travel. Price says he’ll reimburse the government by writing a check Thursday to reimburse Treasury, and he’s pledging not to take any more charters, the AP reports. He says he wasn’t “sensitive enough” to the concerns the charters would create about the use of taxpayer dollars.

His statement comes after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was not thrilled with Price’s flights. Trump had publicly declared his displeasure a day earlier. Trump left open the possibility that Price would be fired, but Price said Thursday he thinks he still has the president’s confidence. The brouhaha started with a Politico investigation into the flights.

He will write a check for $52,000…….he spent a million and he only owes $52,000….not bad like a plea agreement with a bank robber that stole a million but only has to pay $52,000 in restitution.

Apparently Price cannot use commercial flights for it may expose him to a lethal dose of “human cooties’….he cannot be bothered with doing the right thing….he is just echoing those thoughts of his master.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is apologizing for taking costly charter flights on the taxpayer’s dime and says he is cooperating with investigations into his travel. Price says he’ll reimburse the government by writing a check Thursday to reimburse Treasury, and he’s pledging not to take any more charters, the AP reports. He says he wasn’t “sensitive enough” to the concerns the charters would create about the use of taxpayer dollars.

His statement comes after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump was not thrilled with Price’s flights. Trump had publicly declared his displeasure a day earlier. Trump left open the possibility that Price would be fired, but Price said Thursday he thinks he still has the president’s confidence. The brouhaha started with a Politico investigation into the flights.

is master…..

Why does this thief not have to pay the entire price tag?  The flights were for his benefit….he owes the entire bill!

Time to get my ass ready for the weekend…..hope everyone had a good week and that they will please get some relaxation in for the next couple of days.

Peace Out My Friends!

Closing Thought–15Dec16

Trump Craps On Flying Brick!

I have been ranting fort a couple of years over the amount of cash being pissed away on a new fighter, the F-35….or as I call it the Flying Brick….why?  I seems to be not very good at continuous work without a massive and expensive  repairs….

At least there are a couple of things that I can agree with coming from Trump’s mouth….he seems to see what a piece of crap the f-35 is and will continue to be…….

Last week, Donald Trump criticized “out of control” costs for Boeing’s 747 Air Force One jets. On Monday, the president-elect took a new swing at the Pentagon, this time coming down on the cost of the country’s fighter jet program, the Wall Street Journal reports. “The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” he tweeted. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.” Although no specific company was mentioned, Lockheed Martin—the nation’s largest defense contractor—is the developer of the F-35, and its shares dropped 4% after Trump tweeted, Reuters reports. Shares of United Technologies and BAE Systems, both suppliers to Lockheed and the F-35 program, also dipped after Trump’s remarks. Trump didn’t elaborate on how he’d save those billions.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has come under fire before for high costs—the GAO has called it the Pentagon’s “most costly acquisition program,” per the Journal—with 2,400 replacement planes on the DOD’s shopping list at a cost of nearly $400 billion (a pilot’s helmet by itself could cost $400,000). Jeff Babione, general manager for Lockheed’s F-35 program, says the company is open to any questions Trump has about the program and that it “[understands] the importance of affordability.” Babione told reporters in Israel they’ve been trying to cut down the jet’s price by 70% from the original planned cost. “We project it to be about $85 million in the 2019 or 2020 time frame,” he said. No one’s sure what spurred Trump’s criticism, though CNNMoney notes that defense chief Ash Carter is in Israel for the delivery of two F-35 jets and that Trump often tweets “relatively quickly after seeing something reported on TV.”

For all my bitching and now the future president is doing it also…there will be NO stopping the program….even Israel has bought some these worthless and unreliable toys.

A great waste of taxpayer dollars….but that is what Washington does and will continue to do…..even under the guidance of his manship…..