Posted on 02/09/2015 11:53:55 AM PST by Plummz
Although the Pentagon has been required by law to pass an audit every year for almost 20 years, it has been unable to do so. The Pentagon is by far the largest government bureaucracy in the country, with a proposed 2015 budget request of $585 billion. With a budget that large, the Pentagon should be able to tell us how our tax dollars are spent – especially when its leaders keep asking for more money.
But a news report in 2013 revealed that the Pentagon had been doctoring its books for years to conceal “epic” amounts of wasteful spending. The problem is so bad the Pentagon doesn’t know how many people work for it or even how many people it needs. Fortunately, things are not all bad.
Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY) and others have introduced legislation that would place penalties on the Pentagon if it is not able to pass an audit by 2017. According to The Hill, the legislation “calls for increased oversight every year the department fails to meet the target and would eventually strip the Pentagon’s ability to reprogram and transfer funds between its accounts.” The bill would also reward the Pentagon if it met its goal.
And during his nomination hearing to be Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter told one of the bill’s other cosponsors, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), that he is committed to an audit of the Pentagon.
A coalition of groups has urged Congress to take action. The last two years in a row bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives that would have put financial penalties on the Pentagon. And now that the Senate has introduced legislation and the presumed Secretary of Defense is on board, there should be no reason why Congress cannot agree on a bill compelling the Pentagon to pass an audit.
That is the problem. Without a doubt, when the left cuts the military budget, it affects our readiness. They put the nation in a weakened state which results in the next Republican president the task of rebuilding our military.
The double edged sword of that results in deficit spending that helps enable a win down the road for Democrats to again cut the military budget and weaken our defense. A never ending cycle of government mismanagement.
The next time a Republican administration is forced to increase the military budget, I’d like to see corresponding cuts in welfare transfer payments and complete dismantling of various government agencies so it results in real net cuts in overall spending.
I seem to remember being told about how we had to scrap the sequester cuts because the Pentagon was being cut to the bone and the cuts would hurt national security. So now Pentagon waste is being used to prevent cuts in other departments. I said at the time their was plenty of waste for every agency to cut 10% from their budget, including the DOD. The Pubs were just playing the old “cut cops and teachers first” game that local governments play when voters won’t approve tax increases.
Thanks. I thought they did get U. S. input.
When funds are disbursed, folks get pretty up tight about it.
Are you sure about that?
Thanks. I appreciate the response. I agree with your take on it.
That’s my take as well.
Don’t forget Libraries..., they always lump those in for good measure.
I believe they are insisting on the Pentagon 1st so when they go after the rest of the useless departments the DEMS are not whaling and screaming over WHY NOT the military!!!! Let’s face it folks the WHOLE DAMN government is overrun with fraud, military contractors have been ripping the government off with absolutely NO SHAME!!!!! I say LET HER RIP clean the cesspool up!!!!!!!
Everybody can get behind a military spending audit, but only half the country, if that, would get behind payments to parasites, because it affects far too many people.
Well said!
I agree. Good point.
Maybe a big dose of laxatives beforehand?
The troops do their job. Not the bloated Pentagon.
The question is, how many communists are on the civilian side of this thing?
Bingo. Cruz plays this like a chess game. He’s our man.
Long overdue.
Honestly, 09/11/2001 was the only audit I needed to see to tell me the Pentagon, the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI had gone astray.
The idea of a civilian aircraft being used as a missile was such an easy ‘out of the box’ idea, it should have been on all these agencies minds.
Their think tanks didn’t come up with it. Seriously?
We had people training to fly, but not giving a damn about learning to land. Seriously?
Some of this was reported, and nobody thought it important enough to check out. Seriously?
Our nation’s capital was left wide open to attack. Seriously?
We didn’t have defensive aircraft on stand-by. Seriously?
No Congressional committee had considered this. No defense analysts had come up with it. No clandestine services agency had come up with it. No top level law enforcement agency had come up with it. The FAA hadn’t considered it. Seriously?
What the Sam Hell did we pay those folks for? Yes, seriously.
So yes, I do think some audits are in order, but IMO the financial end of it should be secondary before we get more than the twin towers (AND OUR ASSES) handed to us next time.
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