Pentagon can't justify its expenses

[FluffyMcDeath]

The Defense Department can't account for $6.5 TRILLION in year end adjustments. The books are cooked.

This kind of reminds me of September 10th, 2001 when Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon couldn't account for a mere $2 trillion. Of course, we know what happened the next day - and then everybody forgot about the money.

Wonder what is going to have to happen to get people to forget $6.5 trillion. War with Russia maybe?

 

[JoBBo]

Thank you for posting this. Very interesting.

I also find it incredibly enlightening to see that nobody commented on this story of severe systemic institutional failures inside the world´s largest and most powerful military, yet there were countless discussions about a single former government employee not treating confidential materials with the appropriate care...

 

[redrumloa]

Thank you for posting this. Very interesting.

I also find it incredibly enlightening to see that nobody commented on this story of severe systemic institutional failures inside the world´s largest and most powerful military, yet there were countless discussions about a single former government employee not treating confidential materials with the appropriate care...

Not much to say that hasn't been said. I guess you want me to explain that a fish rots from the head down and that Obama is that head since he is the Commander in Chief?

If there ends up being a Wikileaks dump that shows who the criminal players are, there will be a target for attack. Right now we have vague information that points to conspiracy level speculation.

Hillary OTOH wasn't just a typical gov employee who was careless with emails concerning lunch plans or yoga. The very suggestion is eye-rolling.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Right now we have vague information that points to conspiracy level speculation.

Sure, OK, conspiracy - more or less what it is - we just don't know whose, but it has gone on for ages and it transcends administrations. There is a conspiracy to cook the books because that happens, and there is carelessness and sloppiness in keeping track because that happens and then there is the leaking - and someone is probably not too upset about that so no need to fix it and of course, the overarching nature of the beast - too many piglets on too many teets, no piglet really wants the problem solved and it's also likely that the fall out will effect "jobs".

No administration has solved it yet and it's likely that no administration WILL solve it until it collapses. Someone built a beast in the last world war and it's run the place ever since.

 

[JoBBo]

Not much to say that hasn't been said. I guess you want me to explain that a fish rots from the head down and that Obama is that head since he is the Commander in Chief

It did not start with the current president and it is not likely to end with the next one, precisely because Americans do not pay attention to this topic in the same way Americans do not care about 9/11 first responders or veterans waiting years until they receive disability or medical assistence from the VA.

Hillary OTOH wasn't just a typical gov employee who was careless with emails concerning lunch plans or yoga. The very suggestion is eye-rolling.

Nobody suggested that. What has been suggested by others is that she should be treated like a typical government employee. People on this forum took this issue personally because they assumed that they would have been treated very differently, which they felt was deeply unfair.

Well, here we have a case where literally thousands of people are involved in either massive scale accounting errors or flatout unbelievable acts of fraud against American taxpayers. Now assume you were a small business owner, the IRS happened to review your books and discovered a substantial amount of money movements that were unaccounted for. Can you imagine the world of hurt you would be in?

Where is the outrage about the fact that of the thousands of people involved in this absolutely noone will be going to prison? There is zero outrage because people are all too happy to allow themselves to be distracted by fluffed up scandals designed to prove the other party´s candidate is terrible while the real problems are being drowned out by what is all too often meaningless nonsense.

 

[ilwrath]

Well, here we have a case where literally thousands of people are involved in either massive scale accounting errors or flatout unbelievable acts of fraud against American taxpayers.

Well, find me the target, right? I've writing about how bad the runaway government spending and undocumented budget has been for more than two decades, now. The simple fact of the matter is that those people are unnamed and untouchable. You can file all the FOIA requests you want. You won't get anywhere. It is quite literally all of congress that plays along and approves these budgets. That's the place it has to be stopped. Those are the only named people. I've voted against every congressional incumbent I can, every chance I've had.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

It did not start with the current president and it is not likely to end with the next one, precisely because Americans do not pay attention to this topic in the same way Americans do not care about 9/11 first responders or veterans waiting years until they receive disability or medical assistence from the VA.

Americans don't care because they generally don't know, I think. They live in a very carefully controlled news environment. (The same thing is pretty much true in Canada too, I cannot speak for other places). There are messages that are promoted as assertions in news stories without grounds for a start, and if there is news that people should hear about and might create anger and calls for action then there are always celebrities whose every foible and drunken text MUST be reported on because "the people want to know". We get some of the stories seeping through on back pages or a segment on the news but if it's a dangerous story it has to be "balanced" by listening to the "other side" as well. And lots of "human interest" stuff, talking to individuals about how they "feel" about a thing because emotional anecdotes trump facts.

Speaking of Trump, he has played the system because he knows the system. He can keep himself in the limelight by saying outrageous things all the time and get on the news - and the news buys it - I guess they keep hoping he will blow himself up - and sometimes he does a bit - but he has learned to sidestep and feint pretty well over the years. The thing that could end up working for him is he is using the same techniques as the news uses - he throws out some unsubstantiated statement (or seemingly unsubstantiated statement) and the first time people hear it, it is ridiculous, but if people hear it several times it becomes more acceptable. Trump is bringing into public consciousness things like election rigging and political money laundering and the idea that politicians should be criminally accountable. Others have mentioned these things before but don't find it easy to get into the news cycle the way Trump manages. Perhaps at some point the news will recognize that they have to stop quoting him or asking him on - the way Hillary just lays low and out of the public eye for the most part. She seems to be following the strategy that Stephen Harper followed when he was the reigning Prime Minister of Canada - the less people saw of him, the more electable he was.

 

[redrumloa]

It did not start with the current president and it is not likely to end with the next one, precisely because Americans do not pay attention to this topic in the same way Americans do not care about 9/11 first responders or veterans waiting years until they receive disability or medical assistence from the VA.

Your media sources and the people you surround yourself with seems to be the problem if you think no Americans care about veterans or 9/11 first responders. People I know personally volunteer their time with the VFW, American Legion and VA directly. Heck, I just found out yesterday that a very prominent local former NFL football player volunteers his time at the VA. He doesn't advertise that he does this for publicity (so I won't drop his name), he just does it. Heck, Veterans reform is part of the Republican platform.

 

[JoBBo]

Well, find me the target, right?

How about the Secretary of Defense?

How many people spit venom about Clinton because four Americans died somewhere far away in a desert? Even this forum is full of it. Why aren´t people agressively yelling "Bookkeeping! Bookkeeping!" instead of "Benghazi! Benghazi!"?

It is quite literally all of congress that plays along and approves these budgets. That's the place it has to be stopped. Those are the only named people.

So, why don´t people asking questions to candidates bring this up during political debates?

I've voted against every congressional incumbent I can, every chance I've had.

That is great. I am afraid you are part of a tiny minority though.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Even this forum is full of it. Why aren´t people agressively yelling "Bookkeeping! Bookkeeping!" instead of "Benghazi! Benghazi!"?

Partly that it isn't part of the news cycle. News organizations in the US are conglomerates that are also involved in the arms industry so what news org is going to bite that hand? Then, also, there is no name with wide recognition to attach to this - the scandal is too diffuse and systemic so no "human interest" angle, as the journos say.

So, why don´t people asking questions to candidates bring this up during political debates?

a) Most people aren't really aware.
b) That sort of question would never get through the screening.

 

[metalman]

Well, here we have a case where literally thousands of people are involved in either massive scale accounting errors or flatout unbelievable acts of fraud against American taxpayers. Now assume you were a small business owner, the IRS happened to review your books and discovered a substantial amount of money movements that were unaccounted for. Can you imagine the world of hurt you would be in?

Where is the outrage about the fact that of the thousands of people involved in this absolutely noone will be going to prison? There is zero outrage because people are all too happy to allow themselves to be distracted by fluffed up scandals designed to prove the other party´s candidate is terrible while the real problems are being drowned out by what is all too often meaningless nonsense.

Who says the accounting numbers are not being kept deliberately obtuse?

Governments spend money spying to figure out how much the opposition is spending on the military. Much of the non-accounted for money is in black programs, the last generation of stealth planes had their development funding hidden in the Military black ops budget.

The Russians and the Chinese have spies trying to find the amounts spent on these black programs, and then they have to match spending to stay competitive

Beside the purpose of the Military is to break things and kill people, that is how Military's are to be judged.
"Diplomacy by other means" -- Von Clausewitz

in a racing analogy, to win you need cubic inches & cubic dollars
How did we beat the Germans in WW2? the German Tiger 2 was the best designed tank of the war, the Germans built about 1500 of them
the Sherman was an inferior design, it took 6 Sherman tanks to disable a Tiger 2
How did the US win? by building 50k of them, Sherman tanks were everywhere on the battlefield

If accountants and lawyers are running your military, your doomed
And if your military becomes a jobs program, its useless

German Army has to leave NATO exercises early because of work overtime rules

 

[Wayne]

I'm not going to sit here and play conspiracy theory, but the simple fact is that the Pentagon and DOD budget is probably the most complex monetary thing in the world. It's not quite as simple as $10,000 toilet seats and hammers..

In the typical year, there are fiscally hundreds of thousands of individual salaries, benefits, and logistics (10,000+ locations, maintenance on those buildings, etcetera) to cover. Each of these locations could require 10 - 20 contracts, meaning you could literally be talking a million or so individual contracting agencies. The contract I was on for the Marine Corps for example, we had military, government personnel, and at least 3 different contracting companies (10+ contractors) all to support one location.

All this is before you buy a single, solitary $10,000 toilet seat, let alone the uniforms for soldiers...

I'm not pretending to be an expert in this, but I had worked in military and government contracting for 30 years or so before I went all govvie and stuff. It's absolutely not as simple as you might think by reading the article...

That being said, I'm not sure how in the world you would possibly "misplace" 1/3 of our national debt in one single year's budget.. Even that sounds incredible to me...