As far as the government wasting money, heck, that's SOP from what I've seen over the years.
I forget who got this huge ammo order (ATK?), but maybe they made DHS a helluva deal. Buy in bulk, and maybe those buck-a-bullet rounds aren't a buck a bullet. I have also read where as more and more guv agencies are moving to frangible, from the military on down. Supposedly this partially explains why there is so much Federal M855 to be had right now -- and price is no object when saving the planet (by shooting it up $;-).
Given the number of people Ajnin mentions along with the 5-year time frame for this allotment, and I can see 450,000,000 can get gobbled up. One also has to wonder how much of this will end up in someone's personal stash.
That said, would the current administration, given the right circumstances, be happy to dump as much of this into us bitter clingers as they could get away with? I have no doubt. But that's the rub -- they can't pull it off without putting too much of their own skins in the game. I have no doubt what powerful cretins like Obama and Holder would like to do, but as long as there exists too much potential for "loss of unit cohesion" and other little ugly unpredictables like that, they can't. They might get a pinkie-nail broken; too high a price for these cowards to pay. Ya just have to keep in their heads enough of that nagging doubt.
And so the balance of power is maintained. We live in interesting times.
Stay safe, everyone.
