US Missing $6.5 Trillion and About to Lose More

A look at how $6.5 trillion went missing and the financial accountability of the United States of America. How can so much money be missing yet no one knows about it?

Military can’t account for $6.5 trillion in spending, so Trump wants to give Pentagon even more money

By Gary Symons, Equedia

There’s an old joke that the term ‘Military Intelligence’ is an oxymoron. I personally think the term ‘Military Budget’ makes even less sense.

That’s why politicians and financial analysts alike are so worried about US President Donald Trump’s plan to pour hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending into the Pentagon over the next four years.

“I want a balanced budget eventually,” Trump told Fox News. “But I want to have a strong military. To me, that’s more important than anything.”

The problem for fiscally conservative Republicans is that military spending has run literally out of control for decades.

Politicians on both sides of the House and the Senate are worried Americans will be throwing even more money into a bottomless black hole, with absolutely no accountability … and they have good reason to think so.

Inspector General of the Department of Defence stunned Americans last summer when it revealed the Pentagon could not account for $6.5 trillion in spending.

How much is that?

Well, in simple terms, four times more than ObamaCare would cost for the next decade. Enough to build the wall at the Mexican border 260 times over. Enough to pay off roughly one-third of the United States’ $19.9 trillion debt.

One would think when that much money is involved, someone might want to keep track.

As well, the Inspector General discovered the Pentagon removed at least 16,513 financial records during the 2015 fiscal year, and haven’t really given a good reason as to why. (Source: Inspector General Report, July 26, 2016)

So, it’s not wild eyed conspiracy theorists or Democrat politicians saying military spending is out of control; it’s the Inspector General of the military saying it.

This is also not a new problem.

In fact, the military has failed miserably to provide any accurate accounting of its spending since 1996; the year all government agencies were mandated by US law to conduct regular financial audits.

In the 20 years since that law was passed the Pentagon has failed to complete an audit every single year.

Congress responded by demanding the military achieve ‘Audit Readiness’ by September of this year … but there are signs already the Pentagon will not be able to meet its legal obligation to provide an accurate audit of its spending.

So, all of that is shocking enough, but consider also the results of the investigative news report by Reuters reporter Scot Paltrow in 2013, titled simply ‘Unaccountable’.

Paltrow found the Pentagon’s internal accounting systems are unable to keep track of its stores of weapons, ammunition and various other supplies, so it spends outrageous sums of money on new supplies it doesn’t actually need.

As well, Paltrow reports the military often falls prey to internal theft and fraud, because it literally can’t keep track of its own supplies and it’s own money.

In short, a lot of money, literally billions, is being wasted. For example, the Inspector General found in 2012 that the US Army lost track of $5.8 billion worth of supplies between 2003 and 2011 as they were shuttled back and forth from reserve units to regular army units.

The next year, Navy Vice Admiral Mark Harnitchek confessed at an aviation industry meeting that the Navy had “…about $14 billion of inventory for lots of reasons, and about half of that is excess to what we need.”

In this swamp of financial mismanagement and gross overspending, the military budget has soared since 1996, topping $600 billion a year from 2009 through 2012.

Alarmed by America’s spiralling debt, Congress capped military spending at $610 billion by passing the Budget Control Act in 2011. If those caps are lifted … and they will be if Trump’s plan to increase spending is approved … the US national debt will soar.

All of that might make sense if one could show the Pentagon was using its $610 billion budget efficiently and prudently, but it’s not. Every review of military spending, including by the military’s own Inspector General, has shown shocking waste of taxpayer dollars and a complete lack of any accounting standards.

It is into this morass that Trump and his Cabinet would like to throw in billions more taxpayer dollars, while also eliminating the current cap on military spending.

So, how much money are we talking about?

CONTENT LOCKED

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It’s impossible to say with any certainty or accuracy at this early stage, but the words coming from the President himself would seem to indicate increased spending in the hundreds of billions, perhaps even trillions, over the next four to six years.

“We’re developing a plan for new planes, new ships, new resources, and new tools for our men and women in uniform,” Trump said. His first order to the military was to perform a 30-day readiness review of the armed forces, which will be conducted, of course by the Pentagon.

The same Pentagon that kinda lost thousands of financial records and hasn’t been able to account for its own spending for 20 years.

Trump’s basic concept already includes:

Increasing the number of ships in the Navy from 274 ships to more than 310 ships, an increase of 27 per cent, and that number might go higher to 350;

Increasing the number of soldiers in the Army (and in fact, legislation was already passed to increase the number of soldiers to 476,000, an increase of 16,000 from last year);

Modernizing nuclear weapons, including the construction and deployment of more nuclear missiles;

Boosting missile defence systems;

Increasing funding for Cyber Defence systems.

The irony is that Trump is calling for massive increases to the military budget at a time when evidence is mounting that a sizeable percentage of the military budget is being wasted.

There may indeed be a case to increase the effectiveness of the US military, but simply throwing more money at the problem is surely not the answer.

If the new President really wants to do something positive for the military, for taxpayers, and for the United States, he’ll launch a thorough investigation of military spending and put in military leaders who will finally fix this long-standing problem that is crippling military morale and ability.

When the Pentagon shows it can manage taxpayer funds responsibly, that’s the time to look at investing more in military spending, but not before.

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  1. My brother was a defense dept auditor and found United Technologies overcharging the US govt millions of dollars for jet aviation fuel. No prosecutions were ever made.

    As for the 6 plus trillion one might look at the Clinton Foundation. Heck we still have not seen Eric Braverman have we?

  2. This is the sad commentary of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld era, of wild accusations, no intelligence in the military, and lies to support increasing funding to the limit and beyond. Someone got this money.

  3. This is a sad reflection of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld era of creating wild accusations without any facts or intelligence to support. The mid east invasions were to protect oil and gas operations in this highly valuable area, to the benefit of the oil interests and defense interests of the President and his cohorts.There was no conspiracy here, just good profitable business as usual for the governing Bush clan.

  4. Nice. Is this how Donald Trump will put biillions of $$$ in his own pockets, and in the pockets of his billionaire friends? THe money did go somewhere. I wonder where, and to whom?

    1. This was Obama, NOT Trump. Ask Obama about this, and lots of other money, guns, more missing money. Where did it all go??? Hmmmmmm, dems where was all your outrage with Odumer????? Odumer and Clinton have your party so brainwashed, none of you can use you own brain.

  5. 6 plus trillion dollars could’ve funded many of Bernie Sanders’ initiatives. Not lazy freeloading but subsidies for families in of Help in certain consumer sectors like housing, food, utilities, and transportation. The Bush/Cheney/ Rumsfeld clan funneled it all to Halliburton which has never given the American people accountability. My Danish cousins live in a society where they don’t walk past urine soaked people living in the streets – at least before the European refugee crisis initiated by: Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Halliburton / Saudi.

  6. Is anyone really surprised? This is business as usual. Since this country was founded the leaders have started wars, stolen tax dollars and got young men killed. All in the name of national security. Read 1984, by George Orwell. Keep everyone scared!

  7. President Trump shall have to open a new can of worms,which will upset a lot of past and present
    Swampers ….America’s tax dollars being used as petty cash.
    Is mainstream media ready to demand accountability investigations or just keep on making
    Partisan show biz for better ratings

  8. Why does the majority of both houses does not lay a law, that the Pentagon has to have a certified Balance sheet and a P/L. Statement every year?
    Like any BIG CORPORATION????
    Why not find out about everybody, who is involved in this fraud?
    The drug business looks small to these infos.
    If BIG OLD AMERICA /USA. is not able. OR DOES NOT want to get a clear sight
    On both problems, drugs and Pentagon,
    It means it is the biggest and mist corrupt state on earth!!
    Everything can be done:
    IF THE STATE LEADERS WANT!
    If they do not want, they have a good reason!
    Start building death – chairs for all
    the criminals, who are pretending to be the houte vollais in the USA.
    This makes me feel like the old Romans
    In their last years of power!!!
    All this in a so called “Democrathy” of ~ 250 years of age!!
    That makes me think,
    that we have to renew
    our Democracies , the inner organs, to a status of the third millennium,
    and not working on rules and laws which were made before electicity was invented,
    before we had PC’s and software,….
    And so on and so forth…
    Why not make an historic update???????

  9. It’s a story that’s played over and over down thru history. Gandhi said ” Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely ” and it seems there is no permanent remedy.

  10. It is evident that you can’t keep going without checks an balance this is very serious billions lost! Some good bookeepers can find the trail! I know, I was a victim of fraud, moral of the story, someone needs to be responsible! There is always a mommy trail! However it definitely needs to be priority now!I will tell you this I don’t trust donold trump He is known to cook the books!

  11. How can they possibly not account for $6.5 trillion dollars? Do they not have checks and balances like any other department head per sector in our government? I can not believe this. Someone must be accountable for this money, The need to follow hte trail of money.

    I agree that many of the contractors do overcharge the government for services and get away with it. If they would just get a few quotes from reputable contractors then we would save some money. Our government waist more money than I have ever seen, This is disgusting.

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