[FormerLurker]

1.1 trillion dollars here, 1.1 trillion dollars there, etc...

[NEWwoman]

And they talk about ENRON's mismanagement? And this same bunch is going to tell the private companies how to run things ethically?

[toenail]

Quick! Increase cigarette taxes!

[independentmind]

A very interesting article. Thanks for posting.

[AlligatorEyes]

Nothing to see here. Move along please.

Eyes

[BJClinton]

Every year trillions of dollars are unaccounted for by federal agencies

What's our total Fed budget? Isn't it like $3.5 Trillion? Is this implying that over half of the total budget is unaccounted for?

[jimtorr]

Insight spends the whole article blaming contractors. I don't thinks so. Outside of a few bad eggs like AMS, contractors do good, honest work.

The real problems, I think, are with what the contractors are asked to do and how the new systems are used. Garbage in, Garbage out.

Attention should also be paid to bad program management at DOD. Too many system specifications are being written by bueracrats who don't know what they are doing.

They also have a habit of changing their minds in mid-program and making changes that double the cost and make the whole thing un-workable. California does the same thing.

[jimtorr]

The article is misleaing. I beleive the dollar figures are the total since 1995 since the GAO started keeping track. This is not just for one years budget. The annual DOD budget is a small fraction of the 4 trillion mentioned at one point in the article.

[Irish Eyes]

I think that I remember hearing that Hilliary's world travels were billed to the DOD. Did she travel THAT much??

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

In other words, at the end of the last full year on Bill Clinton's watch, more than $1 trillion was simply gone and no one can be sure of when, where or to whom the money went.

"What's Bush so annoyed about?" Podesta asked with a devilish smile. "He's got four years to try to undo all the stuff we've done."
Link.

"We laid a few traps," chirps a happy Clinton aide.....

[Itzlzha]

The Defense Department cannot account for $1.1 trillion that seems to have vanished within the tangled system of financial accounting put in place by private contractors.

My advice, check the pockets of Klinton and Co., as well as ANY of their cronies!

Hey, Shrillary...care to open YOUR finances for inspection?

[FormerLurker]

Public companies are accountable for the accuracy of their financial statements; why shouldn't government agencies be held to the same standard?"

Isn't the government a public company? Think about it...

[FormerLurker]

Trafficant went down for much less than this...

[lwoodham]

Given, that a stack of $1000.00 bills equal to a million dollars is 8.5 inches high, then:

1 billion $ would be 8.5 x 1000 = 8,500 inches high
1 trillion $ would be 8500 x 1000 = 8,500,000 inches high

or
1 trillion $ would be 8,500,00/12 = 708,333 feet high
1 trillion $ would be 708,333/5289 = 134.15 miles high

1 trillion in $100 bills would be = 1341.5 miles high
1 trillion in $1 bills would be = 134,150 miles high

[hove]

That's a $trillion of our hard earned tax dollars STOLEN.....not lost!!

[Jonathon Spectre]

Assuming the average working life is 30 years, the average annual income is $34,000 and the average federal tax on that income is $6,830, nearly 5.5 million Americans will work their entire lives to pay $1.1 trillion in taxes.

>growling<

Speechless.

[babble-on]

is this article a full year old??? you should mention that when you post something. your link don't work

[Eagle74]

$1 trillion? this is impossible, the entire DOD budget has been around $300 billion a year for a decade. Is this article telling me that 3 and a third times the yearly DOD budget is missing. They probably mean $1 billion is missing and while still alot of money it's more resonable.

[iconoclast]

"How is it that the companies hired to develop financial-management systems for government that never seem to do the job - ....

Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell Arthur Anderson.

[FormerLurker]

PING!

[StriperSniper]

Bump for later.