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Report: Pentagon squashed plan to save $125 bil. in bureaucratic waste (Again, not enough money...)
Hotair ^ | 12/06/2016 | Larry O'Connor

Posted on 12/06/2016 10:48:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The Washington Post has a bombshell report Tuesday morning which reveals an internal study conducted by the Pentagon which pointed out $125 billion in administrative waste in how the enormous, military bureaucracy operates. According to the long and detailed report, Defense Department officials buried the findings so as not to jeopardize their political arguments for more funding during the years of “sequester” cuts:

But some Pentagon leaders said they fretted that by spotlighting so much waste, the study would undermine their repeated public assertions that years of budget austerity had left the armed forces starved of funds. Instead of providing more money, they said, they worried Congress and the White House might decide to cut deeper.

So the plan was killed. The Pentagon imposed secrecy restrictions on the data making up the study, which ensured no one could replicate the findings. A 77-page summary report that had been made public was removed from a Pentagon website.

Of course, President Obama has spent the past several years publicly decrying the sequester cuts for political advantage. Here’s the president in 2015 claiming Republicans were making America vulnerable to terrorist attacks because of the cuts:

President Obama on Tuesday said congressional Republicans must end the “reckless cuts” under sequestration that are hurting the U.S. military.

“That’s not the way to keep our armed forces ready,” he said in a speech at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Pittsburgh. “These mindless cuts have to end.”

The president said lawmakers have two paths forward on the budget.The first would be keeping the spending ceilings under sequester in place and using “gimmicks” to fund the military and “shortchange” counterterrorism efforts.

“I got to be honest, that’s what the Republican budget does,” Obama told the audience.

Meanwhile, according to WaPo, Obama’s own appointees at the Pentagon were well aware that there were plenty of ways to cut spending at the Pentagon by merely cleaning up the waste found in the vast, un-checked bureaucracy at the Pentagon:

“They’re all complaining that they don’t have any money. We proposed a way to save a ton of money,” said Robert “Bobby” L. Stein, a private-equity investor from Jacksonville, Fla., who served as chairman of the Defense Business Board.

Stein, a campaign bundler for President Obama, said the study’s data were “indisputable” and that it was “a travesty” for the Pentagon to suppress the results.

“We’re going to be in peril because we’re spending dollars like it doesn’t matter,” he added.

It’s stories like these that resonate with disaffected voters who have been disgusted with the endless demand for more tax dollars and unfulfilled promises to cut “waste, fraud and abuse.” In short, it’s stories like this that got Donald Trump elected. Will he, as a business man, be able to reverse these long-entranched practices by running these agencies like a private company rather than a government agency that can spend billions of dollars with no scrutiny?

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: military; pentagon; waste
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1 posted on 12/06/2016 10:48:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The new Air Force One is the opening salvo.


2 posted on 12/06/2016 10:51:29 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: SeekAndFind

Wow. Hotair provides one article that is not a anti-TRUMP.

What a find, from a site that has gone entirely RINO-Left.


3 posted on 12/06/2016 10:53:04 AM PST by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxists coming,... infinitum.)
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To: SeekAndFind

More lies from WaPo. Ban posting from this enemy.


4 posted on 12/06/2016 10:54:14 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: Neoliberalnot

In about five weeks, it will all be Trump’s fault.


5 posted on 12/06/2016 10:57:38 AM PST by Spok ("What're you going to believe-me or your own eyes?" -Marx (Groucho))
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To: SeekAndFind

The earlier article on this mentioned that the number of civilian employees in the Department of Defense is now about equal to the number of uniformed personnel in the department.


6 posted on 12/06/2016 11:05:20 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind
It's quashed OK? Not squashed. Are journalism majors not required to take any English courses?
7 posted on 12/06/2016 11:06:02 AM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: Neoliberalnot

The DoD is a massive money waster. I believe every word of it. At the end of the day military leaders are just government employees in uniforms, with little if any incentive to reduce costs.


8 posted on 12/06/2016 11:08:40 AM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: SeekAndFind

You think the CIA has a black hole of a budget.. wow.. 125 BILLION???

I wonder how much has ended up in Swiss bank accounts for the elites that milk this nation like a cow..


9 posted on 12/06/2016 11:19:02 AM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Monthly Donors Rock!!!)
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To: RitaOK

RE: Wow. Hotair provides one article that is not a anti-TRUMP.

What a find, from a site that has gone entirely RINO-Left.

______________________

Maybe we should dissociate our minds from the notion that criticizing Trump does not necessarily equate to being left.


10 posted on 12/06/2016 11:26:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

In times such as these, it is pretty obvious who wants Trump to fail and who does not.

HotAir chases its own tail mocking, dissing, insinuating and pushing Trump as a Neanderthal. They are globalist putzes, in spades.

Trump speaks for me. Have not yet heard an utterance from him that I disagree with, so their crap is directed at me and the millions who voted for him. What passes for “criticism” is sour grapes par excellance, and BS.

He is not even inaugurated and the so-called Right disparages his every move.

Enough. The Left has infiltrated and we know who they are.


11 posted on 12/06/2016 11:41:52 AM PST by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxists coming,... infinitum.)
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To: SeekAndFind
As noted before. The Day Before 9/11 Rumsfeld Admits Pentagon Missing Astounding $2.3 Trillion[youtube]
12 posted on 12/06/2016 11:43:43 AM PST by Theoria (I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive)
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To: SeekAndFind

But remember, we need to keep funding NATO to protect the leftists and social-engineers there changing their societies into Muslim ones.


13 posted on 12/06/2016 11:43:56 AM PST by PGR88
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To: SeekAndFind

Follow the money. Who got it? What were the kickbacks? “billions and billions” sounds like Rod Sterling.


14 posted on 12/06/2016 11:48:23 AM PST by dblshot (I am John Galt.)
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To: Neoliberalnot

Bringing in WAPO anti-TRump themes through hotair.com is subterfuge. Hotair provides a way to give TRUMP and his supporters a very hard time. This article is not anti-TRUMP, however, I have been noticing hotair crap appearing on FR and mentioned it upthread.

Formerly a staple to conservatives, hotair.com went the way of National Review and Ana Navarro/Amanda Carpenter types. These yawners turned out to be RINO’s and TRUMP exposed them.


15 posted on 12/06/2016 11:49:31 AM PST by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxists coming,... infinitum.)
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To: Neoliberalnot

Bringing in WAPO anti-TRump themes through hotair.com is subterfuge. Hotair provides a way to give TRUMP and his supporters a very hard time. This article is not anti-TRUMP, however, I have been noticing hotair crap appearing on FR and mentioned it upthread.

Formerly a staple to conservatives, hotair.com went the way of National Review and Ana Navarro/Amanda Carpenter types. These yawners turned out to be RINO’s and TRUMP exposed them.


16 posted on 12/06/2016 11:49:44 AM PST by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxists coming,... infinitum.)
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To: Neoliberalnot

Oooo. Sorry for the double post.


17 posted on 12/06/2016 11:50:56 AM PST by RitaOK (Viva Christo Rey! Public Education is the farm team for more Marxists coming,... infinitum.)
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To: Spok
I thought EVERYTHING is Trump's fault, back to the snake in the Garden?

I'm still waiting for the roundup of all gays, illegals and the poor blacks. Isn't that supposed to happen on 1/21? The colleges are barricading their safe spaces.

18 posted on 12/06/2016 11:55:52 AM PST by jonascord (First rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is that you do not know you are in the Dunning-Kruger club.)
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To: bigdaddy45
At the end of the day military leaders are just government employees in uniforms, with little if any incentive to reduce costs.

Many times its not the employees fault they are stuck with procurement rules which are not conducive to valid competition.

From the Davis-Bacon Act to minority exclusive bidding and a host of others, buying something at the lowest price is not really a priority.

The entire system needs to change.

19 posted on 12/06/2016 12:13:48 PM PST by usurper
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To: SeekAndFind
I can remember a neighborhood Party back in 1982 or 1983 (in Fairfax, VA). One neighbor (a retired USAF Colonel) who worked in Civil Service at the Pentagon was really down and bemoaning the fact that he had been ordered to expedite approval of $300 Million in contracts for "Pie in the Sky" weapons systems. He and his staff had evaluated the proposals over the preceding 18 months and found them UNACCEPTABLE and a TOTAL WASTE! It was the end of the Fiscal Year and it was "SPEND OR LOSE" time for budget commitments! You might note who was President at the time...

While I experienced the same pressures, I was, at least, not dealing with such large amounts and often just declined (don't worry..., my agency DID SPEND THE MONEY..., just elsewhere!)

God only knows the sums expended today in just the same manner!

20 posted on 12/06/2016 12:27:10 PM PST by ExSES (the "bottom-line")
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