How $21 Trillion in U.S. Tax Money Disappeared. “Full Scope Audit” of the Pentagon

originally posted by: RainbowPhoenix
Uh oh, the last time we were promised an investigation into trillions of unaccounted tax dollars the towers fell the very next day. JS 🤷🏻‍♀️

And then they went ballistic on their 'skynet agenda' the day after that. Because, you know, we 'needed' skynet to fight how did one general of the day put it... terrorists whom train in "jungle gym training camps".

The problem with military spending is the mission needs to be defined to include a scope that will limit spending. Set the military budget as a percentage of GDP so it will be in the military's enlightened self-interests to ensure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Your comments remind me a the comments made by these teenagers about the sheriff having a MRAP (8:10 mark of the video, it's funny because it's so tradgic):

a reply to: AttitudeProblem

No it's not. You think we have no capability to put satellites into orbit? Really?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: AttitudeProblem

Why does everyone automatically jump to Space Force meaning putting people in orbit and space ships?

They probably feel that for 21 trillion we should be walking on Mars.
10 times our GDP is unaccounted for and the Pentagon still can't keep the wings on their planes.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: AttitudeProblem

No it's not. You think we have no capability to put satellites into orbit? Really?

I think he was referring to our space program paying other programs to put our astronauts into orbit. It's a big black eye for nasa.

a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

It's not exactly incorrect accounting though. The programs themselves have accounted for their money. This is the result of something like 200 different accounting programs being used at the Pentagon. The majority of which don't talk to any of the others, so everything ends up having to be put in by hand.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

No we weren't. That was announced a year and a half prior. He was talking about overhauling the accounting system. And the audit has been underway for over 6 months now.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Too bad that 21 Trillion doesn't have anything to do with it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The missing funds may not have anything to do with planes falling out of the sky but it does go a long way towards showing the incompetence of our government and specifically the Pentagon.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Which has been proven repeatedly over many decades. The difference this time is some congresscritter got pissed because his district lost out on something, so there's a push for an audit.

To give an example.

We send rations to all our reserve units. The rations get delivered to wherever they unit happens to be training at, all over the country and the world. Some young 20 year old soldier or Marine receives the rations sticks the paper receipt in his pocket and goes about conducting the training.

During the course of training the receipts can end up rained on and destroyed, maybe lost in the wash when he gets back misplaced in a truck somewhere or any number of possible situations.

Now just for rations we're talking anywhere from say $50,000 - $1.2 million to feed a single unit for 30 days of training depending on the size of the unit.

Every attempt to find those receipts is made, but other missions and training come up and it's forgotten about for the time being because we know those funds were spent on food and the troops ate and now we have other things that need to happen right now, because that's just how the military works.

But now those tens of thousands or millions of dollars are now "unaccounted for".

Over however many years this adds up. And these types of situations is where the majority of this "lost money" comes from. When we were in heavy combat in Iraq and Afghanistan I was with companies that spent $10 million a year on just dry cell batteries (AA, AAA, C and D). And that's a unit of only about 150.

I'm not saying it's all hunky dory, but it's not some nefarious cover-up some want to believe it is. It's inefficient government bureaucracy.

a reply to: watchitburn

The other big problem, beyond your example, and all the different accounting programs at the Pentagon, is the fact that the budget is "use it or lose it". When it gets to the end of the year, all that leftover money goes to things like iPads, desks, and furniture. Then the receipts get "lost", or the place they bought it from suddenly uses hand written receipts, so all that stuff they bought conveniently adds up to the exact amount they had left to spend.

a reply to: 727Sky

If I remember correctly. Much of that "missing money" was due to wildly different programs used to keep the books.

The programs didn't talk to each other. So most of the accounting was done by hand. So there were errors or discrepancies in budgets.

And if you've ever dealt with the government. You can see this happening.

This might be true.

a reply to: watchitburn

Try running a business with those accounting practices.

a reply to: Bluntone22

That's always been the problem. Until this year, Congress has only paid lip service to holding an audit. This year, the Pentagon tried to cut several big ticket items, one that has proved a spectacular failure, one that's redundant, and tried to save several billion on a third. Congress didn't like that, because all three affect certain districts and areas in a big way, so they're pushing back.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Correct me if I'm wrong here.

The Pentagon gets approximately $600 billion each year in federal budget money.

They had $21 trillion "unaccounted" for.

That 35 years worth of budget money they can't currently locate.

Doesn't sound like a simple problem of bookkeeping.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

It's not exactly incorrect accounting though. The programs themselves have accounted for their money. This is the result of something like 200 different accounting programs being used at the Pentagon. The majority of which don't talk to any of the others, so everything ends up having to be put in by hand.

That is an excuse and not a reason. Tax returns, financial statements and any other financial documents must be filed fully, correctly and on time. I could use the same excuse (complex, outdated systems) with the taxman here...guess what would happen?

a reply to: LightSpeedDriver

And you're not responsible for several thousand programs running somewhere near a trillion dollars annually, that had little to no oversight when being set up. Yes, it's a badly broken system, no one denies that, but it's not going to get fixed overnight.

a reply to: Bluntone22

It's the exact same problem that they were talking about in 2000 on a larger scale. That audit found just about every bit of what was unaccounted for, I expect this one will too. And the budget fluctuates. They get somewhere around $600B now, they got something like double that 30 years ago. And more before that. It isn't like they can't account for any of their budget for the last 35 years.