Matt Taibbi finally makes sense of the Pentagon's trillions in off-books "budgetary irregularities"

[Trent_Baker]

Pretty sure the audits they already have done will have provided names of companies.

[sdmikev]

I highly recommend reading the couple of follow-up’s that have been published.
Though it will make you want to bang your head against the wall like a 436 dollar hammer…
However, after that, make sure and read his most recent Thomas Friedman article. He loves to give him shit in RS - for good reason. Friedman, Brooks and Dowd make up a trifecta of garbage at the NYTimes…

Friedman has many singular qualities as a writer, but one that stands out is his fierce resistance to core ideas of his native language.

Thomas Friedman Is Right: Pie Doesn't Grow on Trees

[ficuswhisperer]

@doctorow

the Air Force once accidentally shipped nuclear nose-cones to Taiwan, where they were expecting a shipment of helicopter batteries

It’s an honest mistake. Could happen to anybody. Just the other day I thought I was shipping a Blu-ray but it was actually a spent cesium rod. Oops!

[belovedvillain]

But how would we ever pay for single-payer healthcare? /s

FFS.

[FGD135]

Kid. Candy store. No supervision.

[Wanderfound]

@Brainspore

Let’s not forget that Trump’s new proposed budget would give the military even more money than they actually requested.

Trump Wants More War Money Than Last Year and Democrats Don't Seem to Mind

Last week, reports emerged that Trump, while touting overall spending cuts “higher than any administration in history,” was planning to ask for a $750 billion defense budget — a $34 billion increase over last year’s request. This will put an end to years of what’s known as budget “parity,” or the idea that defense and non-defense funding should rise and fall together.

Last year, the Department of Defense failed to pass its first-ever audit. For this and other reasons, one would think that this would be a good time for Democrats to band together and prevent a raise in military spending, or even fight for cuts until the Pentagon can get its books in order.

That doesn’t seem to be in the works.

According to a Hill source, the Democrats are targeting a counter-offer above the $716 billion budget Trump asked for in 2018. In other words, the Democrats want to lower Trump’s number, but still give the Pentagon a raise.

“Even the opening number is going to be really high,” says the source.

Trump’s budget request represents a 5-percent increase overall. Budget analysts have said they expect the final number to be between last year’s $716 billion figure and $733 billion, the likely final number also quoted to Rolling Stone. A $733 billion defense budget number would represent a 2.4-percent increase, or about half of what Trump wants.

Should the Democrats approve a $733 billion budget — remember, Trump’s $716 billion budget passed 85-10 in the Senate last year — it would break a record for the second consecutive year.

The empire is bipartisan.