Fraud, Waste & Abuse American Style

Report: Wasteful Government Spending at All-Time High

The U.S. government has committed to spend a record-high $1.1 trillion with companies holding government contracts "plagued by waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement," according to a new report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The report blames the rise in bad spending on a sharp increase in noncompetitive contracting and a general increase in the use of private companies to perform government functions.

More than $200 billion in taxpayer money was spent on projects for which only one or a handful of companies submitted bids, the committee found. That figure has more than tripled since 2000, according to the report, and now comprises more than half of all government spending outside of entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

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Is there any doubt that we have entered one of the most lawless, destructive periods of American history?




[edit on 28-6-2007 by loam]

www.corpwatch.org...
At issue is a multibillion-dollar Pentagon purchasing system called the prime vendor program, which uses middlemen who set their own prices, instead of direct purchases from manufacturers or competitive bidding.

A Knight Ridder investigation of the program found that, for 102 of 122 pieces of food equipment, the Pentagon had paid higher prices to prime vendors than the government did to contractors outside the system. For example, the Pentagon paid $20 apiece for ice cube trays that retail for less than a dollar.

Forget the three hundred dollar hammer, this is the day of the $20 ice-cube tray and the $20k mini-fridge to put it in (don't even get me started on the cost of the water to go in the trays).

:shk:

When we found out that Haliburton was selling filthy water to the troops (water dirtier than the nearby river, from which it almost certainly originated, before being recycled multiple times to reduce costs), people just shrugged and went back to the television.

'Support our troops' my ass, you brainless hypocrites, get off your star-spangled rears and pay attention to what these money-worshiping, criminal scum are doing to our troops (and us!). The water is just one example among DOZENS, that would be pointless to enumerate since none of my target audience

The American people must be either masochists or idiots, or both. I'm more the former than the latter I think...

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
'Support our troops' my ass, you brainless hypocrites, get off your star-spangled rears and pay attention to what these money-worshiping, criminal scum are doing to our troops (and us!). The water is just one example among DOZENS, that would be pointless to enumerate since none of my target audience

Props for eloquently saying what I couldn't.

And I'd probably agree that this might be one of the
most lawless, destructive periods of American history.
The average American dismissiveness and complacency
is undermining this country and letting criminals run
the show.

I'm too new here to start a thread but I have a question about govt. waste.
A friend of mine in Romania filed what amounts to a suit (more like a complaint since the prosecutor has to handle it) against a wasteful program.
Its such big news here its on the front page of a few newspapers. Apparently the legal mechanism is a bit obscure but perfectly usable.

I am wondering if anything similar exists in US law? Can average citizens start legal proceedings against the pork? Wouldn't it be fun? Possibly even useful?