21 Trillion in Unauthorized Govt Spending

http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/msu-scholars-find-21-trillion-in-unauthorized-government-spending-defense-department-to-conduct/

An audit has to be the first step in dismantling drunk spending which is always attempting to find shelter under the umbrella that the same equals protection for America. I have never felt like I do now that our military is so incompetent and without a strategic paradigm which could face a coalition of larger nations fighting us in a total war situation. We have become more vulnerable and clueless that the type of attacks on America will not be WWII strategies. Trillions down the toilet when real change which would be closing bases and setting up new bases in America which were defensive oriented, not training grounds to invade other nations.

This should be the issue where there is 100 percent consensus in congress that wasteful and corrupt spending must be stopped.

When I was a Federal manager with spending authority we couldn't spend any money that wasn't in our budget.    The budget was split up into different pots and you couldn't move money from one pot to another without HQ approval and sometimes money couldn't be moved without Congressional approval.  

Spending money not in one's budget or paying for things out of the wrong pot-of-money was illegal and you could be fired for it .... or technically even criminally prosecuted.  I never saw anybody prosecuted .... but I have seen at least one person fired, one who went to Federal prison for 18 months for steering contracts, and a couple more managers I can think of that were demoted and/or transferred to a position without budget/spending responsibilities.

Based on 30 years of combined military and Federal civil service it's my view the government (and particularly the military) is a huge money waster.   Anybody see the story about 24 million for new refrigerators on Air Force One? I mean ... c'mon .... couldn't they just get a couple of Yeti coolers?

EmeraldGhost wrote:When I was a Federal manager with spending authority we couldn't spend any money that wasn't in our budget.    The budget was split up into different pots and you couldn't move money from one pot to another without HQ approval and sometimes money couldn't be moved without Congressional approval.  

Spending money not in one's budget or paying for things out of the wrong pot-of-money was illegal and you could be fired for it .... or technically even criminally prosecuted.  I never saw anybody prosecuted .... but I have seen at least one person fired, one who went to Federal prison for 18 months for steering contracts, and a couple more managers I can think of that were demoted and/or transferred to a position without budget/spending responsibilities.

Based on 30 years of combined military and Federal civil service it's my view the government (and particularly the military) is a huge money waster.   Anybody see the story about 24 million for new refrigerators on Air Force One?  I mean ... c'mon .... couldn't they just get a couple of Yeti coolers?

SPEAKING OF YETIS:

millions for refrigerators on air force one.....have we lost our minds.

Their high cost is the latest example of just how expensive it is to build the heavily modified 747 jumbo jets that fly the president of the United States. Experts say the reason isn’t price gouging by Boeing, which makes the jets and handles the presidential modifications, but instead the result of bespoke equipment requirements put in place by the White House Military Office and the Air Force.

“It’s not a contractor issue, it is a requirements issue,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at the Teal Group consulting firm. “It’s not getting people rich.”

The new refrigerators aren’t your kitchen Frigidaires, or even a typical jetliner’s cabin-feeding coolboxes. The requirement for Air Force One is the ability to feed passengers and crew for weeks without resupplying. That means storing about 3,000 meals in massive refrigerators and freezers below the passenger cabin. Five “chillers” cool a total of 26 climate-controlled compartments, according to the Air Force.

http://www.defenseone.com/business/2018/01/air-force-one-needs-new-refrigerators-they-cost-24-million/145457/

So what? Who cares? Every dime goes back into the civilian economy. Employees get paid and then buy stuff. Then the people who made that stuff get paid and buy other stuff. So what? This issue is utterly insignificant, not worth a nano-second of concern.

I will take 25 million to rebuild 25 bridges in North Escambia and North Santa Rosa County......it has been over a half hour detour for some citizens. I would then get five over the counter commerical coolers for a hundred thousand and put them on the damn plane.

2seaoat wrote:I will take 25 million to rebuild 25 bridges in North Escambia and North Santa Rosa County......it has been over a half hour detour for some citizens.  I would then get five over the counter commerical coolers for a hundred thousand and put them on the damn plane.

There's nothing stopping the U.S. from doing both--nothing except boneheads like you in the U.S. Congress who don't understand monetary sovereignty.

Deus X wrote:

2seaoat wrote:I will take 25 million to rebuild 25 bridges in North Escambia and North Santa Rosa County......it has been over a half hour detour for some citizens.  I would then get five over the counter commerical coolers for a hundred thousand and put them on the damn plane.

There's nothing stopping the U.S. from doing both--nothing except boneheads like you in the U.S. Congress who don't understand monetary sovereignty.

An economy based on monetary sovereignty will eventually fail, after massive inflation eats everyone's assets. Try thinking along the lines of allocation of resources.

The twenty five million for refrigerators on air force one is absurd. Do both.....such searing logic.

Floridatexan wrote:
An economy based on monetary sovereignty will eventually fail, after massive inflation eats everyone's assets.  Try thinking along the lines of allocation of resources.

Obviously, you are completely ignorant about monetary sovereignty--Surprise! Surprise!--as well as how inflation is measured and can be controlled by the Fed. Perhaps you were asleep during the Great Inflation of the 70s.

Money IS a resource! DUH!

2seaoat wrote:The twenty five million for refrigerators on air force one is absurd.  

Prove it. How much do you know about the requirements and the contract? Almost nothing? You're just spouting off because the amount upsets you. You don't know anything about how the figure was arrived at. Do some research before you start shooting off you mouth.

Jesus, I would think you'd learned this lesson by now.

You are right.....twenty five million to cool three thousand meals........I do not have a clue. However, commercial airlines do not pay that for their refrigerators or do transport folks. Your answer is correct though.....the specs written eliminate competition and hand deliver the contract to one party. See it all the time in defense contracts. My buddy had generals tell him to write the specs up for his fuel filtering computer system on a military contract.....his product.....his specs......his price without competition. Yea tell me about what we do not know.

2seaoat wrote: My buddy had generals tell him to write the specs up for his fuel filtering computer system on a military contract.....his product.....his specs......his price without competition.

Oh.  

Okay, I bow to your spurious anecdotal evidence.

No wonder so many people get fleeced by con men. I suppose it's too much to hope that you acquaint yourself with the notion of peer-reviewed, double-blind studies.

No, that's okay Pop, just ask your "buddies" what they think and then blindly follow them like the idiots that believed Reagan and his "welfare queen" bullshit.

Deus X wrote:

2seaoat wrote:The twenty five million for refrigerators on air force one is absurd.  

Prove it. How much do you know about the requirements and the contract? Almost nothing? You're just spouting off because the amount upsets you. You don't know anything about how the figure was arrived at. Do some research before you start shooting off you mouth.

Jesus, I would think you'd learned this lesson by now.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1403876/ wrote:
The Boeing Co., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has been awarded a $23,657,671 contract for engineering support services for VC-25A G12/G13 chillers, including prototype design, manufacture/procurement, installation, and the testing of one prototype, consisting of both Group A and Group B equipment.  The Air Force requires that the current air chillers in the G12 and G13 galleys be modified with new cold food stowage to improve reliability and maintainability. Work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; San Antonio, Texas; and various other locations, with an expected completion date of Oct. 30, 2019. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2017 procurement funds in the amount of $23,657,671 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (FA8106-17-D-0002/FA8106-18-F-1002).

"sole source acquisition" ....  aka: nobody else was allowed to bid on it

More on the contract from WaPo:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/01/27/air-force-ones-new-refrigerators-will-cost-taxpayers-24-million/?utm_term=.fd8462cdfab8




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