DOD wasting taxpayer dollars.....again.

We recently received these 2" x 1" "improved" steel slugs for a tool we use.

The Department of Defense, in its infinite wisdom. Thought that it was perfectly reasonable to pay $550.00 for this.



My shop alone received 60 of these. 60 x 550 = $33,000.

I was pissed off for about a week every time I looked at these things. By my estimation the DOD bought about 3,500 of these at $550 a piece. So approximately 2 million dollars on bits of steel.

This kind of crap happens every day.

I think this would be a prime example for defense cuts instead of medical coverage for troops.

Does anyone else have any stories of Govt. waste?

The sad part is that I am not surprised.

'According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,' Rumsfeld admitted. $2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America."
-- CBS News, 1/29/02, U.S. Secretary of Defense raises evidence of government, military corruption
www.wanttoknow.info...


tax money at work

reply to post by xxThexGreatxEscapexx


You're exactly right.

And no one seams to mind. As I said this kind of think happens every day.

Originally posted by watchitburn
We recently received these 2" x 1" "improved" steel slugs for a tool we use.

The Department of Defense, in its infinite wisdom. Thought that it was perfectly reasonable to pay $550.00 for this.

My shop alone received 60 of these. 60 x 550 = $33,000.

I was pissed off for about a week every time I looked at these things. By my estimation the DOD bought about 3,500 of these at $550 a piece. So approximately 2 million dollars on bits of steel.

This kind of crap happens every day.

I think this would be a prime example for defense cuts instead of medical coverage for troops.

Does anyone else have any stories of Govt. waste?

what are they for and what are they made from and do they have a civilian application

I have had one of the $500 hammers and other high price tools.

The were special non magnetic non sparking tools for working around high explosives without blowing your self up.

Many time the government pays a lot for special tools that have little to no civilian application and are custom made just for military applications.

What you are not told is that if a civilian company had to buy special tools custom made and meeting the same requirements they also would pay the same price or higher.

When i was in the navy i served on minesweepers and the being 1/3 the size of a destroyer cost three times as much because the whole ship had to be built from non magnetic materials even down to the engines.
Try to build a non magnetic 2600 hp diesel engine then take into account we have 7 of these big V12 diesels on board at a million apiece. (WAUKESHA (L1616 DSIN) non magnetic diesel engine)








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Sit down sometime when you're bored... lol... download the 2013 NASA budget and search a state, any state for vendors...

You'll find some great ones... one I particularly find fascinating is a DBA in the State of Michigan:

Haworth Volunteer Fire Department in Holland Michigan... 2013 budgeted amount $18.59 million and has 9,000 employees...

LMAO... certainly is by far the largest 'volunteer fire department' in history huh?

Maybe they should be required to spend 1/2 of the money on Diplomacy with hostile nations,, and see if we can learn to live with each other somehow,, instead of spend it all on new ways to kill each other???

just a thought


this is also why I refuse to pay federal taxes any longer until it changes,,

how about Occupy April 15th to protest??

reply to post by ANNED


I know exactly what you are talking about, and no! They are plain old steel. It is called a "chisel slug" any machine shop could make them for $0.75.
They are for disrupting ordnance. The DOD already has an adequate supply of them, that have never failed to do what they were designed to do.

These are allegedly more efficient at doing something that was already done with 100% efficiency.

They could be used by civilian law enforcement, but since they were designed specifically for military ordnance, and civilian agencies are required by law to request military bomb squads to respond to military ordnance, this is strictly a DOD waste of cash.

this how the black budgets get padded I'm sure

Originally posted by watchitburn
We recently received these 2" x 1" "improved" steel slugs for a tool we use.

The Department of Defense, in its infinite wisdom. Thought that it was perfectly reasonable to pay $550.00 for this.

This kind of crap happens every day.

I think this would be a prime example for defense cuts instead of medical coverage for troops.

Does anyone else have any stories of Govt. waste?

I spent 24 years in the Army - I retired as a Major. I spent the majority of my time in Special Operations. I have seen waste the likes of which would make people insane with anger.

I wasn't even really high in the corporation enough to see a good deal of the "real" waste in R&D. Sometimes we'd get a new system or gadget (or even an upgrade) in before anyone even knew how to use the last one, which worked just fine.

I tried to be a steward of the public trust when I had the power to do so - say when I was in Command of something and actually made decisions. I have seen unit’s waste money on so many things that make you go humm. Then I have seen what I consider legitimate needs go unfunded for years.

Like I said - I think that it’s not the amount of money congress gives DOD that is the problem. They give them plenty it's how the egg heads and bean counters chose to spend it that is wrong. For instance we have more General Officers in the US Army today at 500K soldiers or so than we did on active duty in all the services during WWII when we had millions of men in uniform.

They cry foul when congress cuts their money and target the pay and benefits hoping to hit a heart string of the people and get them to fight their battle for them using sympathy. They need to just cut all the silly crap out of the budget.

The military is the only industry I know that buys a tool or system then invents a use for it rather than making a tool or system to fill a need.

Military and defense spending has to be cut FIRST and FOREMOST before ANY other cuts are made, PERIOD.

The spending for military and defense is so ridiculous that its beyond painful.

It is DRAINING this country.

reply to post by HangTheTraitors


Got news for ya, budget cuts are already affecting the US Army. How do I know this? I'm in the US Army. People and projects are being cut. If you can't pass a PT test, you're gone. If you don't meet basic marksmanship requirements, you're gone. If you have any disciplinary actions against you, you're gone.

Those are just a few examples. Retirement benefits have already been changing. Over the next five to ten years the Army will be decreasing it's forces from the over 500,000 thousand we have now to just above 200,000 troops. This includes support MOS's like mechanics, IT, and supply. Combat troops will also be greatly affected by these cuts.

This myth flying around ATS that organizations like the Army are too large is simply false. The fact is, it's the DOD and their administrative costs that are costing the nation so much. When it comes to those of us in uniform doing the actual work, we are getting screwed.

Originally posted by projectvxn
reply to post by HangTheTraitors

 

Got news for ya, budget cuts are already affecting the US Army. How do I know this? I'm in the US Army. People and projects are being cut. If you can't pass a PT test, you're gone. If you don't meet basic marksmanship requirements, you're gone. If you have any disciplinary actions against you, you're gone.

If you can't meet those basic requirements, you don't belong in the military in the first place.

But I agree that the multiple layers of redundant administrative levels are a huge black hole that sucks up cash, and are usually ineffective anyway.

I recall speaking with a British army officer who stated that every year, a high ranking officer and junior NCO from regiments take a trip over to France to seek out and arrange the years wine supply for the officers. The figure he quoted as an average budget was six figures..and i'm not talking low six figures.

As you can imagine, i loved hearing this when i had to buy my own gear in Crossmaglen because the army stuff wasn't up to the job. Oh sorry, my mistake, the newer stuff was up to the job, however it was being worn by the desk staff up in Lisburn HQ so we never saw it.

CX.

reply to post by CX


Yup.

Generals and Admirals have personal assistants.
Pretty much slaves.
That run around picking up their dry cleaning, walking dogs, taking kids to school. These are enlisted service members too. A huge waste of personnel IMO. These officers get paid enough to hire someone if they need one.

Yet we have junior service members on food stamps.