Most government divisions (and businesses) have to watch their bottom line, write budgets and conduct audits. Every now and then you will encounter an organization that is hooked up to what seems like an endless fountain of cash. These organizations should be pitied because they gradually lose the ability to account for themselves.
In organizations where cash is finite, a whole bureaucracy is built to track expenses and income. In organizations where the money is dumped from a truck onto the driveway, that very same bureaucracy is seen as an impediment to getting the work done. That bureaucracy will be stripped of power and will atrophy until the organization has no institutional memory of its finances. And then, one sad day, the money dries up. Now you not only have an organization with the institutional memory of a goldfish, but you have a business culture that assumes that a financial record that will pass an audit is pointless busywork: “I got a war to run here, lives on the line, and you want me to code my line item expenses???”
Who cares who’s reporting if the information is accurate? The New York Times isn’t on that list and it has a long history of providing government approved propaganda.
Accuracy without telling the complete story is just another way to lie.
Here’s a more in depth analysis.
TLDR: They did not lose the money. They spent the money. They even accounted for the money. They simply did not account for every single transaction in enough detail to satisfy the requirements for a full audit.
This is not to say everything is fine. It’s not. There’s a vast amount of waste, and quite possibly a vast amount of pork and fraud, likely totally billions over the 16 year period. But the suggestion that $8.5 trillion is missing is ludicrous - again, that’s all the money the Pentagon (which is about half the budget of the DoD) has spent over those 16 years
Missing money? Check Halliburton’s bank accounts, or look for vast quantities of Middle Eastern petroleum mysteriously “appearing” in Africa in ships chartered by Texans.
IIRC, Mario Cuomo did, sort of: it was more accurately “where did the money come from,” as the question occurred after Desert Storm. But yes, otherwise, it was in the context you suggest.
The increased military spending is fucking nuts! I just can’t understand how Republicans play along with this bullshit - party of fiscal responsibility my ass!
The US already spends over 50% of our discretionary budget- over 1/2 a TRILLION dollars - EACH YEAR on military spending. We spend more than the next 7 countries COMBINED.
On what planet does this even begin to make sense?!
That’s leaving out non-discretionary items which is the real money … social security, medicare, medicaid, and interest in our debt. I think that’s close to 90% of the money out the door.
I found this … not an accountant so I don’t know how all this shit adds up to be honest.
I agree with this, but the analysis you provided doesn’t dispute any of the facts (“The U.S. military has been unable to submit to an audit, flouting federal law and concealing waste and fraud totaling billions of dollars”), it simply reinterprets them. The Reuters article says the money isn’t accounted for, and the analysis you linked to says that some of it’s accounted for, but it’s not “lost” because it was spent. I don’t know if that matters in regards to problem at hand. But there’s nothing in your link that suggests there were “lies” in the Reuters story.
Still, I must stand by my original point, that it isn’t constructive to merely yell “propaganda!” at a source without even trying to find out whether or not the facts in question are accurately reported.
You’re right - discretionary vs. non-discretionary doesn’t get much explanation and most people don’t understand the difference.
The fact that we can spend half a trillion dollars every year on discretionary military spending and “conservatives” don’t make a peep - but they bitch, moan and scream about a few million here and there that actually helps people live and survive.
The “waste, fraud and abuse” argument especially galls me - it’s fucking pennies compared to where our tax money is really being wasted - on corporate subsidies and handouts to already-outrageously wealthy defense contractors.
The increase in defense spending is pure Bannon and his belief in The 4th Turning. To his mind another world war in inevitable and right around the corner so Wormtongue… errrr… Bannon is leading El Trumpo into preparing. The undocumented 6 Trillion is water under the bridge for him.
If I were to don the tinfoil hat, I would say the wall, alien roundup, and extreme vetting are also in preparation for war…
Thing is if you actually read up on Strauss-Howe Generational theory, he specifically called out how WWI and WWII was an abnormal Crisis period that was elongated due to global politics and had it been allowed to run it’s normal course would have been considerably shorter.
A Crisis period does not necessarily have to involve catastrophic world war - there are many other identified periods where events that were far less costly in terms of human life still had the same generational effect (Great Depression for example). What matters is the societal impact and how these events act as catalyst for moving into the next Saeculum and bearing the next generational Archetype.
Most say we are currently either in a period of Unraveling or already in Crisis depending on one’s perspective. Either way, Howe’s theory is these turnings happen regardless of who’s in charge and that it really cannot be avoided - just accelerated or delayed. These are macro-social attitudes and not predicated or controlled by any one person or government.
And it’s not a predictor of events or a prognostication - just a reflection of generational attributes over time. Can’t really tell where things stand until after the periods have turned and perspective is gained thru the lens of history.
