Report Reveals $8.5 Trillion Missing From Pentagon Budget

[Archae]

Source: Crooks And Liars

Yahoo Money' The Daily Ticker is reporting that is has discovered a Reuters investigation that reveals $8.5 trillion – that's trillion with a "T" – in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996 that has never been accounted for.

Read more: http://crooksandliars.com/2015/06/report-reveals-85-trillion-missing

---

Anyone care to bet how much was ladled out to Bush's and Cheney's cronies?

[onecaliberal]

1. :

[billhicks76]

72. Announced Sept 10, 2001

Doc Zakheim was comptroller at DoD then right? Rumsfeld announced it at press conference. And so many records stored at WTC gone. Imagine that.

[Nictuku]

91. You beat me to it

The next day was Sept 11th. Makes me concerned about what might happen tomorrow, now that this report is out.

But maybe now Americans are so apathetic about this sort of thing and it will just go unnoticed?

*sigh*

Americans used to get worked up over taxpayer money being stolen.

[flobee1]

129. Only when it goes to the poor

[Enthusiast]

130. We have seen many strange occurrences since the election theft of 2,000.

But I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

[billhicks76]

148. Coincidence Theorists Should Be Relegated To The Speculation Section

Free Speech Zones On DU!!!! Pathetically Ironic. But the real question is how much information and investigative data was housed at WTC....supposedly a lot.

[sofa king]

111. The attack also took out the DoD accounting department

Donny Rumsfeld had just moved them into the new wing of the Pentagon, even though it wasn't complete.

Of course, it was only 2.3 trillion then....

[Enthusiast]

128. Were they hiding the evidence?

[harrose]

145. First the Rethugs steal $2.3T in 2001 and now they abscond with $8T!

We need to interrogate every single current and former Rethug legislator at the federal level until the money is found and returned.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. I lost $5 on a bus once.

I know how this must feel to the feds.

[BlueJazz]

13. !!

[Paka]

35. Definately.

[Mnemosyne]

3. $2.3 trillion in 2001 per Rumsfeld. Insane and disgusting. nt

[AnAzulTexas]

34. and then a day after he announced it...

I am not a quack, so spare me the "conspiracy theory nut" branding.

the coincidence just seems a little too odd

[valerief]

40. I know. I wonder what horrible thing will happen tomorrow. nt

[Mnemosyne]

46. There are no coincidences.

[davekriss]

62. "There are no accidents in politics"

[Mnemosyne]

89. Precisely. nt

[AnAzulTexas]

96. this is true

thanks for not mocking me like valerief there seems to be doing

truth is, something terrible will happen tomorrow. I doubt it'll be some earth shattering terrorist attack against the homeland, but just like every other day, someone on this planet is going to have a tragic day

[AZ Progressive]

4. That's $8.5 trillion that could've gone into healthcare, education, jobs programs...

the list goes on and on...

[awoke_in_2003]

17. From 1984

“The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word "war," therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that is exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and has been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three superstates, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed forever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This--although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense--is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE.”

[nikto]

60. Orwell knew the future because he understood his present-day reality

[awoke_in_2003]

61. Yep. nt

[Enthusiast]

131. Precisely.

[corkhead]

99. I need to read that book again but on the other hand, we're living it, I don't need to read about it

George Orwell probably never imagined that he wrote an instruction manual.

[awoke_in_2003]

117. I have read it 5 times

over th last 32 years or so. It is scary to see how we are moving toward dystopia.

[LittleGirl]

123. I have never read it

guess I should put it on my summer reading list.

[awoke_in_2003]

142. When I first read it...

I never thought it would happen here. But I have seen this country creep ever so slowly for the last 30+ years.

[calimary]

116. Great quote!

[awoke_in_2003]

118. What is really eye opening

is Goldstein's book. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_and_Practice_of_Oligarchical_Collectivism

[AZ Progressive]

5. Possibly the greatest heist in the history of the world

[Mnemosyne]

48. And ongoing for quite awhile too... nt

[Rafale]

6. No one will care.

No one will protest in the streets. I wonder what Kim Kardashian would say. #PreoccupiedAmerica #TooStupidtoCarePublic

[davekriss]

64. I think that's possible partly because the numbers are so large, hard to get one's head around it

[Earth_First]

7. Any questions? nt

[stuffmatters]

8. This is why the DOD/Pentagon refuses being audited.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Area 51....

[YOHABLO]

32. Oh don't go and beat up on my boy. At least he thinks outside of the box.

[hopemountain]

140. "could it be that….. aliens?"

love that show

[TBF]

10. I wonder how much of that was Social Security money originally -

that should have been in a lock box. You know, the Social Security $$$ that Jeb Bush would like you to have to wait until you're 70+ to have any chance of getting (because they've already spent it all as you pay it in).

[KansDem]

11. "..the Social Security $$$ that Jeb Bush would like you to have to wait until you're 70+ to have.."

Maybe a deal could be worked out? Maybe you could get it a little sooner if you're willing to row a boat to the Cayman Islands?"

[ctsnowman]

110. Exactly!

They love to blame everything on "entitlements" while stealing the taxes aka premiums we pay in.

[MicaelS]

12. I bet a lot of this went into the "Black" Budget.

Not racial, but stuff the Pentagon does not even admit exist.

[Paka]

37. Like funding wars they deny exist?

No, they're funded by the CIA bringing in drugs in the body bags and secret Reagan-style arms deals.

[63splitwindow]

144. I agree

The stuff secretly developed is VERY, VERY expensive but is, in fact and in large part, what makes us the strongest nation in a world of bad guys who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage if we weren't.

[Unknown Beatle]

14. $8.5 Fucking Trillion!

Why not follow the money to see where it went? Yeah right! Generals and higher ups in the Pentagon will retire in style, living the high life on our tax dollars.

[bemildred]

15. And people call me crazy when I say money isn't real. nt

[LuvNewcastle]

65. You're not crazy. I don't know why so many people

don't get that. It's fiat currency, which means that it's worth something just because we say it is.

[sendero]

106. you are right..

.... it isn't real, it's just numbers in a computer.

But, even those unreal numbers can be mismanaged to the point that currency becomes near worthless.

[bemildred]

108. Well you have to realize we have this competition going on among the wealthy

to see who can accumulate the most of this worthless stuff, these numbers in the computer,
and that has much to do with the mismanagement of our currency.

[Diclotican]

16. Archae

Archae

Then Pentagons budget should go on a diet - for the next couple of years - as the 8.5 trillion debt should be paid in full - and then some interest - who should go to programs who is more necessary than what Pentagon uses it on....

If they can waste money - they have to much - and get some cuts who could benefit the rest of the country..

Diclotican

[Thor_MN]

18. Tell them to live on what they can find of it until normal funding covers it.

Not another dime until it's repaid.

[thesquanderer]

19. We need a chart of what $8.5 trillion could buy.

In terms of things like years of social security solvency. Free college tuitions at state colleges. Road and bridge repair, the high speed rail system conservatives say we can't afford. All the other programs they say we can't afford to fund at current levels, like SNAP payments and heating oil subsidies for the poor. Climate change mitigation.

Most of what this country needs could probably be addressed with just the money the DOD loses in the couch.

[tclambert]

51. Well, that's half of the U.S. GDP for 2015, so it could buy . . . half of everything.

Free college tuition at state colleges--about $30 billion per year.
The Department of Transportation's estimate to improve all US roads "with a positive benefit/cost ratio"--around $160 to $180 billion per year.
High speed rail--In 2011, VP Biden proposed spending $53 billion over six years. So about $9 billion per year.
SNAP benefits for 2014--$74.1 billion in 2014.
The moon program (in today's dollars)--about $150 billion, or about $15 billion a year.

30+180+9+74+15=308. So I'm only up to $308 billion/year. $8.5 trillion (= $8500 billion) could support spending at these levels for about 27 years. Or, if we could make 3.7% interest on the $8.5 T, it would support all that spending for . . . infinity.

Since all of these spending items benefit the economy, we might actually make money on the deal, or at least, the extra economic boost would decrease the necessary interest rate to pay for an infinity of spending. All that spending could create something like 3 million jobs at $100,000 per job, which should greatly decrease the need for SNAP benefits.

[thesquanderer]

104. Thanks for putting in perspective.

It's enough to make you cry. What the country could easily be except for stupidity/greed/malfeasance...

[Nihil]

107. Best visual guide to understanding what sums like this relate to ...

... courtesy of Randall Munroe (xkcd.com)



(e.g., National debt of Japan in 2010 was $8.6T ... Hell, the total US spending on
ALL war operations up to that time was "only" $8.04T!)

[lonestarnot]

20. Holy shit motherfuckers.

[jeff47]

21. I'm betting we spent $8.5T on secret projects since 1996...

With a decent portion of those project being "unsuccessful".

[Enthusiast]

133. Even the few successful secret opps were counterproductive in the long term.

[jeff47]

134. Not necessarily ops. For example, the SR-71.

Developed in secret, deployed in secret, cost a fortune, and not really on the books until very late in its life.

[Purrfessor]

22. The current defense department budget is...

Last edited Wed Jun 3, 2015, 11:43 PM - Edit history (1)

$565 billion. Multiplying that amount over 19 years equals $10.735 trillion. So I'm curious how Reuters concludes the Pentagon cannot account for $8.5 trillion. Is the Pentagon budget twice what we are told?

[smiley]

54. or maybe....

they just can't account for any of their spending.

[valerief]

55. Why would you totally ignore the enormous military supplemental/emergency spending?

That goes to the military to do with as they please.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/12/11/16481/war-budget-bulge

[arcane1]

78. Yep! That's how Bush funded his wars, isn't it?

Bodies aren't the only thing they don't count!

[Purrfessor]

82. First, I accounted for the regular budget numbers

and questioned how much additional funds the Pentagon might have been given. That is not ignoring anything. Second, allowing a Pentagon budget of $565 billion per year over that time span was a generous allowance. Third, the chart you link to includes a war budget, yet still the average yearly amount is in the neighborhood of $600 billion per year. Over 19 years that equals $11.4 trillion. Allowing for $625 billion yearly, a more than generous allowance according to the chart, the total budget equals $11.875 trillion. I am not saying the Reuter's report is wrong, just that to me it appears improbable that out of $11.4 trillion, the Pentagon can only account for $2.9 trillion.

[valerief]

112. Okay, thanks. I think post #103 offers clarification. nt

[Recursion]

149. They say "lost" if it's been inadequately audited

It's a kind of irresponsible headline, really.

[Oktober]

23. Stargate program...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

66. Close...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/pentagon-military-golf-courses-map

[Oktober]

77. Do you have an issue with MWR facilities?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

84. MWR = Money Wasted on Recreation.

[Oktober]

85. Maybe gruel and water at the chow halls too?

Pinch those pennies...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

88. Do you realize there is a difference between the troops and the brass?

We have generals right now flying around in Lear jets with congress critters and defense contractors to some tropical paradise to play 18 holes and they call it "an inspection" to make it sound official. The grounds, the staff, the jet, even the booze is all on the taxpayer's dime.

[Oktober]

100. That isn't what your article was about or what I responded to...

First you poo pooed all of the mwr courses around the world that are part of most bases. These are for the every day troop...

Then you mocked all MWR programs and so I was curious which facilities or benefits you think service members deserve besides gruel and water...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

119. I mocked GOLF COURSES....

The article was about the Pentagon wasting money and golf courses are a good example of an unnecessary expense.

Unless you feel in WWII we should have been beating back the Nazis with a 9 iron.

[Oktober]

120. You are against recreational facilities for the military?

They do have lives beyond beating down nazis.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

121. Oh sure, since I'm against maintaining 5 star golf courses all over the globe,...

....that means I MUST be against the troops having a Rec Hall.

I must be against the USO too. Right?

[Oktober]

124. You tell me...

It would seem to follow based on this statement of yours...

MWR = Money Wasted on Recreation

[Spitfire of ATJ]

125. IT IS when the money goes into 5 STAR GOLF COURSES....

You are pulling the same extremist, false choice argument I would expect from a conservative.

[Enthusiast]

135. We don't think these luxuries are acceptable when civilians are barely scraping by.

[Oktober]

143. All jobs have varying levels of perks...

There is no reason for DoD quality of life to suffer while we wait for the whole world to be perfect and equal.

[Enthusiast]

146. No one expects the world will ever be perfect and equal.

But there is absolutely no justification for the amount of money spent on the US military.

There is no great enemy with a powerful air force, navy and army. There is no threat great enough to justify this level of spending, let alone the waste and outright theft.

[Recursion]

150. The backlash to golf courses always puzzled me

They pay for their operations with greens fees from service members and dependents. I know the sport gets a bad rap, but still

[Oktober]

151. Run of the mill military hate...

Usually falls into two categories...

A) the aforementioned 'you shouldn't have golf courses until everyone can go to the in golf course'

B) thinks the military is for society rejects who can't make it in the real world. AKA I would have joined but I got into college.... Thinks service members are on the burger flipper level and should get comparable pay and benefits.

[yourout]

69. That is from one of my favorite episodes.....classis SG1.

[Oktober]

76. Right about the time where they were just in it for the laughs I think...

Blow stuff up... Smart ass comment... Rinse ... repeat... indeed...

Insert Amanda Tapping and Claudia Black and I'm spent...

[A Simple Game]

24. What did you think would happen

when they couldn't spend $395 on a hammer and $1250 on a toilet seat anymore?

Now 8.5 trillion divided by 19 years comes to around 450 billion per year, that is more than the entire defense budget was for some years.

Does anyone know a good reason someone shouldn't be held accountable for this?

[jamzrockz]

49. And just mention cutting a penny

from the defense budget and the media will beat you up for trying to punish the veterans. They would accuse you of trying to kick disabled veterans out on the streets.

[A Simple Game]

101. It appears our National Security is hurting our Nation. That kind of money could

seriously reduce the National debt.

But if they can't account for it, does that mean they don't need it? I think I could make that argument.

[arcane1]

79. You embolden our enemies with that talk. Clearly you Hate America.

Wait... What were we talking about again? Look over there!

[Enthusiast]

136. Because raise the retirement age.

[NotHardly]

25. Do we still have a Justice Department, Attorney General... someone, anyone????

Pretty sure intentional accounting errors, fraud, waste and thievery are still crimes somewhere ... some country.

[orpupilofnature57]

28. Patriot Act .

[jamzrockz]

47. They are busy investigating FIFA

And yea, I will eat my shoe the day they eventually do any serious investigating on this.

[freshwest]

26. Is that all? I see 'some' of us are going to live on Mars, too. That money has to go to something.

Part of a global technocracy. It's not about conventional morality, it's just bookkeeping. Which fits within conventional morality, too, not the ones doing this. It ain't about us. But it's 'The Nature of the Beast.' We don't even have a name for it, but we all love it so much.

[orpupilofnature57]

27. All of it, to all of them .

[DirtyHippyBastard]

29. A few questions

Since the national debt is $18T, can we now adjust it to $10T, since obviously this money never was distributed to the pentagon? They are just too good at what they do for this to have happened.

Shouldn't there be an emergency session of congress to address the shortfall this will cause in defense of the country? I mean, wasn't this $ meant to protect something (I think that is what defense means)? Emergency military spending increases for all baby.

Hasn't Bernie been calling for a full audit of the pentagon?

[WDIM]

30. Thats how they fund the other side.

That they are fighting against.
Seen the equipment ISIL has at their disposal?
They are funding their own never ending war and the war monger profiteers are taking in trillions.

[drray23]

31. the numbers are hard to believe.

Those numbers dont seem to make sense. if you assume 500 billions a year since 1996 that would be roughly 10 trillions given to pentagon. if 8.5 are missing this means they only spend 15 % of their budget year after year got the past 20. Since the yearly budget was not 500 billio in 1996 its even more nonsensical.

[valerief]

59. You are ignoring the enormous supplemental/emergency spending. nt

[LuvNewcastle]

74. Something is definitel off there.

[Purrfessor]

87. In answer to Valerief's reply, see post #82 above.

You are correct that the numbers do not seem plausible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

103. The point is that it's the entire Pentagon budget which has never been audited since 1996

Here's the key bit from the article (it's from 2013, by the way):

Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China’s economic output last year.

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon/#article/part2

It's not that $8.5 trillion is simply 'missing'; it's that the Pentagon cannot say definitively how it was spent. Which then creates the chances for fraud, epic waste, and so on.

[MisterP]

33. is THIS the reason we can't stop our trains from flipping off the tracks like pancakes?

[lordsummerisle]

36. I can't wrap my brain around

that much money going missing...

[valerief]

38. Look over here! Welfare cheats have refrigerators! nt

[kjones]

39. That's a lot...

There better be people on Mars we haven't been told about for that price.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

41. Did they check Dick Cheney's house?

[TexasBushwhacker]

68. How about the Carlyle Group? n/t

[glinda]

92. And Bush's house.....

[valerief]

42. That's the .01%ers' piggy bank. The WAR budget, that is. nt

[IronLionZion]

43. Do we have any liberals left in Congress?

You'd think Sanders or Warren would get on it. Something seems off about this

[olddad56]

44. a couple of trillion here, a couple of trillion there, pretty soon it runs into real money.

Like enough to feed all of the hungry children in this country, enough to shelter all of the homeless, enough to make college affordable for everyone, and on and on.

If the money was budgeted for military spending, it was already wasted, even before it wound up missing (or stolen).

[panader0]

50. Yeah--you said what I would have said.

[sulphurdunn]

45. I would guess there is another set

of books somewhere.

[blackspade]

52. That would buy a lot of Social Security...

Fucking thieves.

[project_bluebook]

53. Probably needed to order specialized spark plugs

For the Alien Saucer in Roswell.

[nikto]

56. Is that all?

Harrumph!
Mere pocket-change.

[darkangel218]

57. Meh.. it's just 8 trillion.

[AZ Progressive]

58. A few ways to get an idea of what $8.5 trillion is

$1172 for every person in the world (yes, 7.25 billion people)

$26,480 for every person living in the United States

$69,672 for everyone who pays federal income tax (122 million)

106 Bill Gates (each with a net worth of $80 billion)

8,500 x 1 billion

8,500,000,000,000



Take this stack of $100 million dollars in $100 bills




Put enough together to make about $1 trillion dollars (and yes, these are double stacked)



and then multiply this by 8.5

[davekriss]

63. Rounding error. Nothing to see here, move along

[ProfessorGAC]

109. Well, That Made Me Chuckle

If it weren't so pathetic, i wouldn't feel guilty over laughing over your line! Funny stuff.

[NewJeffCT]

67. gee, it's only $8.5 trillion

it's not like real money, like what went towards extending unemployment benefits or SNAP benefits last year.

[TexasBushwhacker]

70. And that's not counting the WASTE!

And if you underfund and understaff the accounting department, it makes it really easy to hide mistakes and outright theft.

They say it goes back to 1996, but I'm guessing the ball really started rolling in 2001. Maybe that's what PNAC was all about. Maybe all of them should be charged under RICO.

[JDPriestly]

71. K&R.

[malokvale77]

73. I'm shocked...

I think it is way more. No .

[colsohlibgal]

75. Amazing This Gets No Attention

I know some good places to look, it just seems like nobody much cares.

[tridim]

80. Yea, but once I saw someone buy meat with food stamps. nt

[jwirr]

81. How much is our deficit again?

[Hoyt]

83. The good news -- while the accounting system is s deficient, we still got a lot of lethal bombs,

guns, ships, tanks, and other crud. The bad news -- it's not like there is $ 8.5 trillion out there that we can use for health care, welfare, etc.

Improving the accounting system won't save much money. Saying "No" to wars and junk will.

[Archae]

86. One place I know of that the money went down a rat hole...

The "missile defense" program.

The only time a "test" was "successful," was when the "test target" had a homing beacon on it and no decoys.

Billions went down that rat hole for a system that didn't work.

Just look how "successful" the "Patriot" missile defense system was in "intercepting" Saddam's Scud missiles during the Gulf War.

[Zorro]

90. 2 year old story

I call bullshit.

[Peace Patriot]

95. What would the bullshit be?

...that this has been known for two years--that $8.5 TRILLION in taxpayer money has been wasted or stolen--and nobody has called the Pentagon to account?

That's definitely bullshitty!

[vkkv]

93. Oooops ! n/t

[PatrickforO]

94. NO! Because they bought toilet seats with it! Nice expensive ones!

[MADem]

97. I've been griping about this for years.

A full audit needs to happen. Top down. It'll take a half decade or more but it needs to be done.

[corkhead]

98. The only surprise to me is word of this was allowed to get out and that we are being told about it.

[brush]

102. Remember the missing pallet of millions, or was it billions, in cash that disappeared in Iraq . . .

during the Cheney/Bush war?

That must be part of the missing trillions, and you can bet that money found it's way into secret accounts funneled through the "usual suspects" to the 1% — can we say Halliburtion, Blackwater, KBR, et al facilitated making that money disappear?

They didn't have to bother with the relative "small potatoes" amounts that could be smuggled in diplomatic pouches.

Why eff around with that amateur crap when defense contracts have access to thousands of shipping containers that are not searched?

[raccoon]

105. If anyone out there thinks anything will ever be done about this, I have a bridge to sell you... nt

[jamzrockz]

113. Come to thinkabout it

So they are trying to tell me that an average of 772 billion per year has been missing since 1996? Sorry but I tend to believe a lot of sinister thing about the US military but I cannot get myself to believe this one.

Lets wait a few month and see if this number still stands. Someone must have drops a few extra digits into the final number. No way in hell this number stands after 2 month of counter investigation

[muriel_volestrangler]

114. This is from 2013; the figures is the whole Pentagon budget, which has never been audited

and thus 'cannot be accounted for'. There is undoubtedly fraud in there - the quotes like

LETTERKENNY ARMY DEPOT, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania - Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense’s accounts.

Every month until she retired in 2011, she says, the day came when the Navy would start dumping numbers on the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting agency. Using the data they received, Woodford and her fellow DFAS accountants there set about preparing monthly reports to square the Navy’s books with the U.S. Treasury’s - a balancing-the-checkbook maneuver required of all the military services and other Pentagon agencies.

And every month, they encountered the same problem. Numbers were missing. Numbers were clearly wrong. Numbers came with no explanation of how the money had been spent or which congressional appropriation it came from. “A lot of times there were issues of numbers being inaccurate,” Woodford says. “We didn’t have the detail … for a lot of it.”

The data flooded in just two days before deadline. As the clock ticked down, Woodford says, staff were able to resolve a lot of the false entries through hurried calls and emails to Navy personnel, but many mystery numbers remained. For those, Woodford and her colleagues were told by superiors to take “unsubstantiated change actions” - in other words, enter false numbers, commonly called “plugs,” to make the Navy’s totals match the Treasury’s.

show that; but the DoD just seems to ignore it.

[herding cats]

115. It's technically true.

It's due to the fact the Pentagon has never been forced to account for what they're doing with their money. The $8.5 trillion figure is the total amount funneled through the Pentagon since 1996. Which is when they were supposed to begin accounting for their spending is still unaccounted for by virtue of their never bothering to show where it went.

Below is an excerpt from the Reuter's article from 2013 which all this is being based on.

Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for. That sum exceeds the value of China's economic output last year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/18/us-usa-pentagon-waste-specialreport-idUSBRE9AH0LQ20131118

[muriel_volestrangler]

122. This is 18 months old

The Reuters article says: "By Scot J. Paltrow Filed November 18, 2013"

And the $8.5 trillion isn't 'missing'; that's the Pentagon budget from 1996 to 2013, for which they cannot produce proper accounts.

[nichomachus]

126. If I give you something, and you can't account for it, it's missing. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

137. Not really; we know they did spend some of it

on salaries etc. The military does exist.

We don't know how much is missing.

[Enthusiast]

127. Wherever the money went it certainly doesn't warrant an investigation.

But we must cut Medicare and Social Security. The military is keeping us safe. [URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[yurbud]

132. enough for everyone to go to college for free and pay off all mortgages...

but we need it for lasers in space to fight terrorists and pirates.

[Gumboot]

138. Imagine the screaming & hysteria from the Right....

... if that money was missing from any other government dept's books.

But as usual, crickets...

Just blows my mind that no one is accountable, or ever held responsible for anything at the DoD.

Eisenhower was so damn right. I'd love to hear Bernie & Liz's thoughts about this.

[RoccoR5955]

139. The records are WTC building 7

Where they always were.
Oh, they blew it up on purpose? My bad!

[Scalded Nun]

141. As stated above, it is enough to make you cry

Especially when you think of what that money could have been used for (other than death and enrichment of the MIC).

The defense budget goes up by ridiculous percentages and no one really cares (including the public). There may be a couple of whines but they die down quickly. The pentagon has never managed its money and is vulgar in how it throws away much more than it actually needs. Again, no one cares. They (DoD) keep a few scapegoat-types around to blame things on when something outrageous pops up, but then, it is back to business as usual.

Folks, the world does not want to destroy us (a few crazies, sure) and we do not have to position ourselves to destroy the world. Besides, we can be brought down without a shot being fired...look at our trade deals.

Take a look at what this country spends on 'Defense' and look at just how many actual service men and women are on active duty. Then do the math.

Until the people in this country get off of their collective, lazy asses and actually demand change this will continue.

Maybe then we can use some of that money on the real needs of this country.

[rickford66]

147. Forget that. Some one bought steak with food stamps.

And they have a refrigerator.