posted on February 5, 2002 01:31:48 PM new
That's the figure in the newly presented bush budget, and he makes a lot of hay by telling them that it includes a pay raise.
I pay raise may be great, but what about this?:
CBS News | CBS Evening News
The War On Waste
Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds
— $2.3 Trillion
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 29, 2002
(CBS) On Sept. 10,
Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld
declared war. Not on
foreign terrorists, "the
adversary's closer to
home. It's the Pentagon
bureaucracy," he said.
He said money wasted
by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and
death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day –
Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to
fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste
seems to have been forgotten.
Just last week President Bush announced, "my
2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in
new defense spending."
More money for the Pentagon, CBS News
Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while
its own auditors admit the military cannot
account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track
$2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man,
woman and child in America. To understand how
the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider
the case of one military accountant who tried to
find out what happened to a mere $300 million."
$2.3 TRILLION dollars that they can't account for? TRILLION?? I'd defy anyone to even imagine how much that is. Would a trillion dollars stacked up reach the moon?
posted on February 5, 2002 01:50:35 PM new
Funny the republicans blame the democrats for bigger government. Well we see who likes big government. The trillions that is missing probally went to paybacks for the 2000 election. If a party steals an election what is a few extra bucks? Remember when reagan was in office the military was spending $750.00 on a toliet seat.
posted on February 5, 2002 01:57:51 PM new
$750.? Try again. A good friend of mine, a man who retired from the Navy after 23 years flying as crew in the P3 anti-submarine and surveillance planes (like the one that was recently in China news) told me that the toilet seat(s) in that aairplane cost over $8,000. They were not much more than what you find at West Marine for boat toilets.
But even so. At least they know where that $8,000 per was spent. This astounding number is just gone - nobody knows where.
posted on February 5, 2002 09:53:28 PM new
More on this from British press:
US loses trillions to 'ghost army'
IAN BRUCE
THE US Defence Department has lost track of military equipment worth 10 times its £270bn annual budget in the past year, according to the
General Accounting Office, the government's congressional watchdog.
The £27 trillion worth of misplaced kit represents £5700 a head for every man, woman and child in America, or 100 times more than the UK's
total defence spending on its army, navy, air force and strategic nuclear deterrent submarine force for 2001-2002.
The revelation comes at a time when George W Bush, the US president, has just approved an additional emergency £34bn funding package to
help the armed services tackle global terrorism in the midst of economic recession.
A new "war against waste" is about to be launched to run parallel with the war against terrorism, with the GAO ordered to crack down on the
Pentagon's careless handling of everything from classified guided missile parts to payments for part-time national guard units which continue to
claim for "ghost" soldiers who have resigned or are dead.
Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, was about to wield the accounting axe when September 11 intervened to change immediate priorities.
Now he has returned to bringing to book the defence establishment, which has not passed a government audit in a decade. "This is a matter of
life and death. The adversary's closer to home than Afghanistan. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.
The army does not know the whereabouts of £640m worth of equipment and stores which left depots in one area and have not been logged at
their destinations.
A GAO source said last night: "A lot of big-ticket equipment is rusting quietly in railway sidings in Tennessee or Dakota, or has actually reached
its intended recipient and been shunted into a warehouse without paperwork to track its movement. No-one knows it's there.
"The national mood is understandably patriotic right now and no-one really wants to hear the harsh truth. If the Pentagon was Microsoft, it would
be bankrupt and people in charge would be fired for gross incompetence."
The latest shock has come from 40 national guard whistleblowers who told investigators that many units in the linchpin of homeland defence are
up to 20% short of their declared complement of soldiers.
