By an 88-11 margin, the Senate votes to spend $886 billion on defense spending. The details show much graft that both parties seem happy with.
A proposal this week to modestly cut the already needlessly high and wasteful Pentagon budget failed miserably says Responsible Statecraft in its take Senate Bails Out the Weapons Industry Once Again.
Press coverage of yesterday’s passage of the Senate version of the annual Pentagon spending bill, known formally as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), has mostly focused on the looming battle over “culture war” provisions included in the House version of the bill, including measures that would constrain the Pentagon’s ability to promote diversity, fight racism in the ranks, and promote reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights.
Meanwhile, neither chamber did much to question the Pentagon’s soaring budget, which could reach $1 trillion over the next few years if current trends continue. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have cut the Pentagon budget by 10 percent failed by a vote of 88 to 11, suggesting that the vast majority of members are perfectly happy throwing $886 billion at the Pentagon and the Department of Energy (for nuclear weapons work), with few questions asked and few strings attached.
There are endless examples of contractors overcharging the Pentagon and fleecing the taxpayer. Sen. Warren mentioned just a few in this week’s hearing: paying $1,500 for a medical device that could be purchased at Walmart for $192; giving Boeing $70 for a pin that was worth four cents; and paying $1,800 for vaccines that normally cost $125. And as 60 Minutes noted after interviewing former Pentagon procurement official Shay Assad, “[t]he Pentagon, he told us, overpays for almost everything – for radar and missiles … helicopters … planes … submarines… down to the nuts and bolts.”
The Pentagon’s $52,000 Trash Can
Please consider The Pentagon’s $52,000 Trash Can
Until 2010, Boeing charged an average of $300 for a trash container used in the E-3 Sentry, a surveillance and radar plane based on the 707 civilian airliner. When the 707 fell out of use in the United States, the trash can was no longer a “commercial” item, meaning that Boeing was not obligated to keep its price at previous levels, according to a weapons industry source who spoke to RS.
In 2020, the Pentagon paid Boeing over $200,000 for four of the trash cans, translating to roughly $51,606 per unit. In a 2021 contract, the company charged $36,640 each for 11 trash containers, resulting in a total cost of more than $400,000. The apparent overcharge cost taxpayers an extra $600,000 between the two contracts.
In another case, Lockheed Martin hiked the price of an electrical conduit for the P-3 plane as much as 14 fold, costing the Pentagon an additional $133,000 between 2008 and 2015.
Jamaica Bearings — a company that distributes parts manufactured by other firms — sold the Department of Defense 13 radio filters that had once cost $350 each for nearly $49,000 per unit in 2022. The apparent markup cost taxpayers more than $600,000 in extra fees.
The investigation also revealed that Raytheon Technologies had raised the price of Stinger missiles from $25,000 to more than $400,000 per unit. “Even accounting for inflation and some improvements, that’s a seven-fold increase,” Shay Assad, a former Pentagon acquisitions official, told 60 Minutes.
About half of the Biden administration’s $842 billion Pentagon budget request goes to contractors. In 2022, roughly 30 percent of military spending went to the “big five” weapons makers, which include Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman.
Pentagon Price Gouging
Senator Warren harps about price gouging frequently and most of it is nonsense. When it comes to defense spending she is correct for a change.
Please play the following video by Responsible Statecraft. It’s a real eye opener.
More Than the Next 10 Nations Combined
The Peter G. Peterson foundation puts a spotlight on defense spending in US Spends More on Defense Than the Next 10 Nations Combined
Defense spending accounts for a sizable portion of the federal budget and the United States vastly outspends other nations. In determining the appropriate level of such spending in the future, it will be important to evaluate whether it is being used effectively and how it fits in with other national priorities.
Support From All Corners
Mind-Boggling Reasons
Noah Smith: “Human extinction is going to require an increase in defense spending.”
OK, that’s a sarcastic comment. But how the hell are we supposed to pay for this?
Deficit? Did You Say Deficit?
Please note Republicans Push for More Military Spending in Debt Deal as They Decry Deficit
Republican lawmakers who oppose the debt-ceiling bill argue it doesn’t do enough to cut spending or reduce the deficit. Yet when defense is concerned, many argue the government ought to be spending more, not less.
Under the deal passed by the House on Wednesday evening and sent to the Senate, defense spending would get the 3.3% increase the president proposed for the coming year — even as other programs are cut. Defense hawks are pushing for an even bigger boost, and Senator Lindsey Graham has proposed an amendment to the bill that would increase defense spending to keep up with inflation.
“When I hear Republican leaders say this budget deal fully funds defense, I laugh,” the South Carolina Republican told reporters Wednesday.
The administration’s $886.3 billion national security budget request for fiscal 2024 provides the biggest-ever defense spending increase and also one of the largest peacetime budgets when adjusted for inflation. The US would be spending more on defense than the next 10 nations combined.
The Permanent Push for More Military Spending
Please consider The Permanent Push for More Military Spending Includes Submarines, Missiles, and Now Icebreakers.
Allegedly we have gaps on Icebreakers, Submarines, Artificial Intelligence, Rapid Defense Experimentation, Science and Technology, Nuclear Submarines, NATO, China, Missiles, and
Space.
Republicans defend this as a jobs creation mechanism.
I would rather spend money building infrastructure than fighting wars and wasting hundreds of billions of dollars stationing troops all across the globe.
But there is no choice. Democrats want Bidenomics and free money for social spending, and Republicans do not give a damn about wasting massive amounts of money on defense.
The inevitable consequence is the worst of both worlds, and in this case by an 88-11 vote.
By a 100-0 margin, they are all hypocrites on something.
It is sad that most Americans could care less about military spending. Price gouging is nothing compared to main weapon programs. The F35 has already surpassed the one trillion dollar mark and now we are paying defense contractors for the design of the next generation fighter, not to mention the new and improved stealth bomber that can be detected in Russian Airspace. moving on to our illustrious Navy a 3 billion dollar air craft carrier now cost the USA 15 billion and they cannot defend against the current hyper-velocity missiles being field by Chine, Russia and Iran. Oh our destroyers now cost 3 billion. I could go on but we need to put a stop to this,
It would be interesting to see how the F22 and F35 behave against the Russian air defense.
I am sure Russia doesn’t want to find out.
I am just as sure American neocons do want to find out.
been going on for years and years, and nobody does anything about it. Upton St Cair said something about , hard to get someone understand something when their job required then not understanding it. probably not exact but something like that.
I’ve been a contractor in mostly R&D for the military for the past 20 years. I’ve had about a dozen different jobs in that time: contracts get cancelled, ended, underbid, etc., and if you’re lucky you got a new position with the same company, otherwise, you were out on the job market again. With my education and clearance getting jobs has not been a problem and I’ve made pretty good money. However, in all that time I don’t think the military/govt got more than $10K of useful work for me. When Beltway Bandit A loses the contract and Beltway Bandit B takes over, all the knowledge and experience is lost. That’s been the sum of my career. I did some good work, and some mediocre (to tell the truth) but nearly all of it has been a waste of taxpayer money. Perhaps what wasn’t wasted justified the rest: some of the work I did made this country and, I hope, the world a safer and better place.
On paper having contractors do 95% of the work looks like a good idea. Private corporations are more efficient, when the work is done you don’t have to keep anyone on the payroll, etc. The comments already here show that that’s not the case. Even when a company holds onto a project for say 10-20 years a lot of the money is spent on corporation bureaucracy and salaries/bonuses for the C-suite types. That’s on top of the government and military bureaucracies.
Bottom line: much cheaper to have actual federal employees. In addition to everything else, they don’t get paid as much as contractors do, generally speaking.
A few agencies (NASA) and governments labs (Los Alamos, Johns Hopkins Applied Research Lab, Naval Research Lab, etc) are actually quite efficient and give the taxpayer a huge return. This is because they’re run by scientists, or, when they’re run by political appointees, the scientists ignore them, nor does the organization of the labs lend itself to pointless micromanagement.
Really, all too bad. I’ll be retiring within the year and it saddens me to look back. So much I did and so much I could have done, for nothing.
I should add, on the other hand a vast amount of military R&D money has had absolutely immense payoffs for the civilian world: GPS, the internet, just to name two of the hundreds: absolutely changed the world. No corporation would ever have funded the basic research needed for such advancements even if they had the cash to do so. About 10% of DoD spending is R&D. A lot is wasted but the return has still been amazing.
that’s a rubbish theory which does not hold up. without the government crowding out the space, many inventions over thousands of years were done by private inventors and their financial backers. one could easily envision that without the wasted war machine bureacracy, we’d be way ahead of where we are at much less cost to us all as a society of humans.
Sure, tell me what private organization could have developed the absolutely essential 155 mm nuclear fission artillery shell.
It’s the same everywhere in DC. Generally, contracts aren’t handed out based on quality of work. It’s not their money, so they don’t care. Contractors know this, so they spend their time focused on kissing a$$ instead of doing a good job.
We’re the NY Yankees of defense.
These days we might be the NY Mets of Defense.
Never has so much been spent for so little result 🙂
*like*
Yankees exactly.
All the money in the world and can’t put a decent product on the field. Overpays for mediocre talent . Should be winning the world series every year for the amount of money these guys blow. US Pentagon can’t even beat Afghanistan. General Patton would be appalled at the congenital losing this country does
And the New York Dodgers of responsibility.
Wow..the words I would like to use to describe the 99% of whiney little sissies in this thread would get me banned. No institution, no lever of gov anywhere is perfect. They can all do better. Comparing our budget to other nations, what a ridiculous logical falicy analysis. That’s appkes and oranges.
So, for all the people who think they know better and can sit from the luxury of their cushy cool houses sustained by reliable electric power houses and apartments, with food in the fridge, and your ability to travel freely from one city to another without barriers and ID checks while being extorted for cash from law enforcement, WHAT is your national defense actually worth?
There may be one or two here, but the majority have never spent time outside the safety and security of US protection, or at least those legal protections provided n Western civ. Never have they taken the tine to speak with foreigners who fled their homes in Central/South America, any nation in Africa, the Balkans, some in the Mid-East or some Asian nations. The appreciation and gratitude most have for being here is far beyond your spoiled little brats in here. And what system, who provides that luxury of not having to worry about a foreign military kicking in your door? Right. DoD So, what’s it worth? Smart people. What’s the value? “Uh…IDK, but there’s a lot of waste…uh…disabled vets getting money for life is a scam, and there is contract fraud, and we don;t need so many planes and ships and there should be more peace talks.” You sound stupid. War s mans’s nature, get over it.
I sense you’re trolling, but I’ll bite.
Yes we have a first world class lifestyle in the U.S, we earned it on Normandy and nuking Japan. We have kept it alive using the MIC.
You reference reliable energy in nice homes, with fridges full of food. You also reference leisure and travel, and ask if that’s what our Defense is worth? Um….yeah! That’s what sets us apart from the world.
You forgot to mention the Camaros, Challengers, and Escalades in people’s driveways. You forgot to mention concerts and breweries, and all the fun people have. You forgot to mention the ability to go to Costco and WalMart, and get whatever we want whenever we want.
I’d rather be dead than live in another country.
Switzerland is pretty nice too!
And they have a real working democracy.
Ever since we developed the a bomb, there’s been no chance of anyone invading us.
Ever since the Government installed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans there’s been no chance of anyone invading the US.
You’d need to account for all of those years prior to WWII where the US had a minimal military capacity and never faced all the tragedies your imagination is producing. In fact, it is hard to think of any instances of one country wanting to invade another in the modern era except for civil wars (Korea, Vietnam) or economic attacks (Kuwaits theft of Iraqi oil). So war is not in man’s nature. Man is quite capable of getting along just fine, especially when wealth is no longer delivered by control of agricultural land, but instead is created by holding shares in profitable corporations.
Yep. It’s a dangerous world.
We have two large oceans protecting us, plus Canada and Mexico, bordering north and south, are not enemies intent on invading the U.S. Most of the military budget is for defending a global empire, not for defending the U.S.
I have and I’m pretty sure you’re a nut job. I was offered merc work in South America. I just didn’t like the people I would have been working for. Loved the people. Yeah, our army was offering it. And no, Tim McVeigh didn’t wash out. If you would pick up a book, you might be surprised to learn that we’ve had a hand in all the misery of the countries you whine about. In fact, our military is directly responsible for Mexico City being a hellhole from their destruction of every country south of Mexico. And let’s not forget our military trained the cartel. So little you know, yet you sound so sure.
Somehow I just can’t get rid of the feeling that defense from “foreign military kicking in your door” has less to do with the Department of Defense (the old War Department) and a lot more to do with two very, very large oceans between the US and just about everyone else.
During the last decades, American weapons have been used mainly against less developed countries, and the wars in question have all ended in American defeat. But the initial successes have always been attributed to the superiority of American armaments.
The war in Ukraine, against a technologically developed adversary, showed the poor performance of American weapons, which are systematically destroyed and even serve as trophies.
This means that these weapons were probably paid for at least 10 times their real value.
Maybe the Pentagon is just an appendage of the MIC, and just a huge credit-hoover.
Neocon McCain now Neocon Grahm.
Nothing new to report here.
So many countries we’ve intervened in militarily, directly or indirectly, since 911 as part of the “War on Terror” are under “do not travel” advisories (Level 4-highest level) for U.S. citizens by the State Department. These include:
Afghanistan
Iraq
Iran
Somalia
Libya
Syria
Belaurus
Russia
Ethiopia
Yemen
If this is a victorious war on terror what would defeat look like?
I guess wanting to tour the cradle of civilization is too dangerous and unAmerican.
If I may offer a positive interpretation–
There is so much waste/bloat/graft in the budget, that if one were to strip it out the actual amount of spending on equipment and hardware is nearly in line with many other nations. The graph form the Peterson Foundation changes dramatically and the U.S. is just one of the crowd.
“ Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have cut the Pentagon budget by 10 percent failed by a vote of 88 to 11,”
Translation: don’t burn $100 dollar bills in your furnace. I have a furnace of my own that burns money way gooder.
The wider, perhaps poorly answered question is, “Who polices at the world level?”
Since the Soviet Union finally disintegrated, the answer has been, “The USA.” But that hardly is, um, sustainable. The USA is simply the police by virtue of being the strongest man in the room. Modern policing, with the idea of “the police” being an impartial 3rd party and neither family, clan, nor sect based, is nowhere to be found at the world level.
Notice the current police have problems with future continuity and succession. Notice the current police have problems with what laws exist and in what form. And notice that policing isn’t cheap. It’s both unfair that US people must pay for the world’s policing and that the world’s police are thereby biased in favor of the US.
Policing implies having a monopoly of using force and the US certainly has no monopoly of that in the world. It’s more like a Mexican Standoff rather than an organization that suppress violence.
Fitch cut US gov rating. US 30Y weekly test Oct 24 2022 low. US 10Y weekly test
Feb 27 fractal zone.
It should be obvious that WWIII is coming (just track ITA or the dollar), and we won’t get a vote (just like the Ukrainian people), because the Neocons own Joe, which should not be a shock, as the WEF, China, and Ukraine also own Jurassic Joe.
Just like RFK Jr, who has the audacity to say that vaccines should be properly tested and peace must be negotiated over Ukraine, Trump is also ridiculed by both parties for wanting to stop the useless dying in Ukraine and negotiate peace.
link to armstrongeconomics.com.
The “Plot to Seize Russia” and Ukraine for their vast natural resources has been tried before in the late 1990’s, and has been thoroughly documented in Armstrong’s book, which includes the actual Clinton documents obtained through FOIA requests – link to armstrongeconomics.com.
Zelenskyy is a bribed actor that is playing his part for the Neocons. He ran on the promise of ending corruption and brokering peace between his Nazi’s and the ethnic Russians. Instead, he has shown that he was just acting, as Ukraine remains the most corrupt country in Europe and he is using his citizens as cannon fodder in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars and villas around the world where he expects to exit stage right when his countries assets are sold off to Blackrock and JPM for pennies on the dollar.
Like Zelenskyy, Sleepy Joe also pretended to be a unitor when he has done nothing but follow the divide-and-conquer orders from the Neocons, and collect kickbacks, many from Ukraine in exchange for billions of dollars to fund the Ukrainian Govt and pay their pensions, and allow unaccounted for munitions to be sold on the black market.
The Ukrainian people did not get to vote for this war, and neither did the American people – AGAIN, as the Constitution requires. The President’s Budget has an unprecedented 10.6% increase in Defense spending for FY2024, after a 6.4% increase this year. It is also well known that small caliber ammunition capacity for the military and law enforcement are ramping up significantly. Law Enforcement is getting ready for civil unrest and the Neocons are getting ready for a major war, and please don’t fall for that “peace through strength” BS, when we already spend more on defense than the next 10 countries, COMBINED.
It should also be noted that the US Budget shows a 38.9% increase in interest expense this year, followed by another 19.4% next year, and an accumulated total of over $10.2 Trillion for the years 2024-2033, which will make it the 4th largest expenditure in the budget…and I’m 100% sure they are not forecasting rates going up as much as they will because of increased default risk.
I predict that accumulated interest will be the largest Govt expense within four years, assuming defaults don’t come first, and it should be noted that most of these interest payments go to foreign holders of our debt, meaning the money leaves this country, just like the Ukrainian billions, helping exactly nobody in this country.
I bring up the interest expense / debt issue because it’s one of the reasons war is “needed”. Cover is desired for defaults and the roll out of a digital currency so they can track and tax anything that moves, and force compliance with their Great Reset agenda (likely as the outcome of another Bretton Woods emergency meeting).
We also have the requirement that Russia and China must kiss the ring of Klaus Schwab so the WEF can impose their One-World-Govt Great Reset, which is also using the gloBull warming hoax to justify forced compliance. After all, we can’t have Russia and China standing in the way of saving the world from excess CO2, which is necessary for life and only 0.04% of the atmosphere. This is one of the reasons China is supporting Russia in Ukraine, as China knows that if Russia falls, they will be next, provided nuclear Armageddon doesn’t come first.
Despite what the talking heads and Neocons spew across the MSM, Russia and China are NOT the aggressors. Since Vietnam, it’s always been the Neocons dragging us into endless wars that we never win, and now that they have the Fascist WEF collaborating with them, they truly believed they can conquer the world.
WWIII is the dream of Neocons like Victoria Nuland / Nudelman (2nd in charge at the State Dept), Lyndsey Graham, and Mike Pense, who recently showed his true colors in an interview with Tucker. If you want to understand how the establishment truly feels about “we the people”, simply watch this short clip of Mike Pense, who can’t be bothered with all the problems we have at home when there are Russians to hate – link to youtu.be.
I’m sorry, but we’ve crossed the Rubicon. There is no hope of civility with the current cast of Nutjobs running this country, which includes Republicans that constantly tell us war is the only way to achieve peace.
NATO, which must keep USSR-era fear alive to justify their existence, has been continuously encroaching toward Russia since they first agreed to not move east. With the push from Nuland and Biden, they even tried to make Ukraine, the most corrupt country in Europe, part of the EU and NATO. What would we do if Russia set up shop in Mexico, or China does the same thing in Canada (which they are actually trying to do)?
Now, Sweden was just made part of NATO, and at the request of Poland, we agreed to expand the sharing of nukes. Talk about poking the bear.
The Biden Pretendancy has also been antagonizing China over its One China Policy, so a war over Taiwan is the back-up plan, in case Ukraine can’t catch enough teenagers and force them into the military.
Sadly, at half of our country will ignore reality again, this time risking nuclear war, simply because Trump is the messenger. Trump, like JFK (who opposed Vietnam), had to be removed by the Neocons.
Equally sad, the other half of the country are counting on an orange or white knight to stop the globalist Nutjobs from imposing their sick totalitarian “Great Reset”. It won’t happen for several reasons, the least of which is they will have no problem assassinating Trump or any other anti-establishment candidate before they ever take office…and that’s assuming they don’t steal or cancel the 2024 election because we’re in the middle of WWIII.
We need politicians willing to speak truth to power, instead of holding out their hat to gain more power. How many US politicians are standing up like German MP, Christine Anderson, who last week rightly stuck it to the WHO?
“An unelected body like WHO is controlled and run by multi-billionaires should never be allowed to act in place of a democratically elected government,” she said during the Citizen’s Initiative conference in Brussels.
“So take it from me … take it from the millions and millions of people around the world. We will bring you down, and we will not tire until we have done just that. So brace yourselves. We are here, and the fight is on. So let’s have the fight.”
link to zerohedge.com
Our politicians should be saying the same thing to not only the WHO, but the UN, NATO, Zelenskyy, gloBull warming zealots, the Neocons, and any other group that’s going along with the WEF’s “Great Reset” totalitarian travesty. Instead, career politicians on both sides of the aisle are willing to say whatever it takes to get re-elected, which includes selling this country out on the false hope they might get a seat at the table in the One World Govt.
It should be obvious by now that the globalist Nutjobs will do WHATEVER it takes to not miss this last opportunity to impose their “Build Back Worse” nightmare. What will the people be willing to do if they officially start WWIII before the 2024 election? What about when they cancel cash and try to force us into a digital currency that is programmable to make us do whatever they want? This is their plan, “so let’s have the fight” while we still can.
Human history is the story of us figuring out justifications for slaughtering each other. It’s kind of our thing.
I am glad someone wrote something thoughtful. Thanks!
A little bit longer and you can turn it into a book.
Would have been great except you think Trump is an outsider. He was the best president israel ever had though.
Superb long-winded rant!
I believe that most commentators here are against waste in the defense budget and frankly so am I. How can one not be against waste? Now defining waste is the problem. A trash for a airplane that is no longer being built can certainly be a problem to replace if it has to be specially made to a certain size and has to be made of certain materials. Anyway that has be be judged case by case. But generally finding replacements for specialty products that are no longer made and where the machines to make have been scrapped can be a pain and if there is only one potential supplier then he rules. With car parts we have junk yards. For military equipment there are also junkyards but if there are no more parts left and you need it fast then you are over a barrel. On the other hand some equipment has dropped considerably in price. The F-35 was originally a $200 million plane. Now it’s price has dropped to under $80 million making it cheaper than most other fighters on the market so there is good and there is bad.
90% of the pentagon budget is payroll.
Personnel is 24% of the Pentagon budget. The heath part is mostly under the Department of Veteran Affairs and is not included in the budget.
Probably the development costs of the F35 are not included in this price of 80 million per plane. I read somewhere that these costs amounted to more than 1500 billion. Is it true ? How much is it by plane?
Development didn’t start with the F-35. Much of the development costs were from other programs before and some concurrent and some from specifically the F-35 program itself. That is why it is hard to give development cost. It’s like asking what did it cost to develop the PC or the smart phone. Till now there are about 1000 F-35s built and delivered to the US and allies so the development costs per plane , whatever it is, has been dropping rapidly and will drop further. Long production lines like this make it easier to get economies of scale in manufacturing the planes and the price per plane will drop even further.
Almost everyone, except engineers, do not understand Non Recurring Engineering costs.
Why the drop in price? Economies of scale?
NRE costs.
If defense spending means deep pockets for Ukraine.. then reduce it to zero.
If it’s for our defense, then I am all for it. More ships. An upgraded Navy.
Yup.
Join the Navee and see the world.
Visit foreign lands.
Meet interesting people.
And kill them.
All of it is a waste. But stupid can’t be fixed.
You say all of it is a waste – are you for totally getting rid of the military then?
Yeah. This after 10 years of it. The military is a big old albatross around the neck of a collapsing political system. Standing armies are even more dangerous than in Washington’s day. And just look how quick he was to use them in the whiskey tax rebellion. A successful rebellion despite what the spin doctor historians say.
I’d reduce the military to the nuclear deterrent and enough long-range missiles to sink any navy trying to reach our shores. Probably get it down to $10 billion/year or so.
Nuclear weapons are one of the most expensive items to build and especially maintain. Your $10 Billion won’t buy you enough let alone a navy also. Redo your math.
Nukes are the stupidest weapon ever. Took a NBC course in the army while that idiot Reagan was in charge. Those idiots actually believed if you nuked a city, the response would be limited. It’s an insane weapon and lunatics are in charge. No thanks. By the way, remember those dramatic pictures of the sailors getting splashed by the waves created by a nuke in the bikini atolls? I believe it’s uninhabitable still. Or the soldiers marching into the fallout in the desert? That’s the kind of people who always get the football.
Nothing will get fixed until we crash and burn.
Why we haven’t done that yet just defies all reason.
Time to check those hypotheses we are all so certain about….
The propaganda campaign starting up, with their concerns over control and privacy, means our zero reserve fractional banking is falling apart. The time table for its collapse is unknowable. However, it’s an absolute certainty. Only the stupidity of the people, and their slavish minds are keeping it up. But it will fall. And it will be ugly. Over 10 million people just vanished during the great depression. Look around. And in the mirror. They were far tougher than 99% of this population. And they didn’t make it. It’s not something I’m cheering on. I just know slaves are gonna slave.
It’s called capitalism. 155 million people working everyday to better meet the needs of their customers and to grow their customer base with more and better products. Couple that with it being by far in the best interests of the very wealthy to keep some semblance of economic order and it is a system that is almost impossible to crash. In fact, just about the only thing that can cause it to crash and burn is the very wealthy being unable to meet their debt obligations on a mass scale. And that’s the real purpose of the Federal Reserve: to keep that problem from happening. As long as the Federal Reserve remembers this, you should bet on the USA.
A holy cow : vets disability. Free cash flow for life from the DOD.
If parents want to help their kids be successful in life with steady work and almost no layoffs, then they should council them to get into the defense industry!
Absolutely!
Except Boeing lays off a lot. Avoid them.
Let me modify that statement:
Find something the military needs and manufacture it. That’s the business to be in!
They’re guaranteed a soul slowly crushed over a few decades.
The only part of the defense industry subject to very few layoffs is military service. Which can come with a defined benefit pension and medical care such as it is.
The republican defend this as a jobs creation mechanism and veterans votes.
The DOD R&D is spread all over the world to foreign contractors.
Cut the useless desk generals and their subordinates in the pentagon. Inflation might deflate the vet bubble.
No doubt, there will be a record number of pigs at the public trough.
The DOD spend 90% of it’s budget on wages, vets and retirement : a bubble.
China spend little on wages, retirement and vets.
Who owns the most golf courses in the world?
DOD
LOL…wow…there’s some real “facts” in this thread.
Soldiers are not supposed to play golf? Tell me why not. What sports are allowed for soldiers in your book?
Maybe not hold the record. But it’s for the officers. They like to pretend they are sophisticated.
We are in a an ancient Greek tragedy in which the actors are condemned by fate.
Short of being psychotic, we all know how this narrative will end. Americans will suffer and die impoverished in the streets while the government will debauch the dollar and ruin a once free nation , chasing after perpetual war. There is no bottom, there is no repentance, there is no shame. That’s just how it will be. Will any leader who gets in the way be the victim of a lone gunman unconnected to a conspiracy? We’ll see.
Sadly, the Neocons have no issue taking anyone out, if ruining them or putting them in prison fails.
Which ancient Greek tragedy are you referring to?
All of them.
So where does Oedepus’ deviant impulses fit into your metaphor?
Central. His fate was foretold in the first act.
One of the best gigs PERIOD is being a prime contrator field representative for a large vehicle, plane, etc.
Your sole job is to follow whatever it is around, and keep an eye on it as all the sub contractors do their jobs on it.
You literally get paid to travel, eat, and sit there as a representative all day. Technically it’s for accountability and witnessing purposes, but it’s about the easiest $100k (including overtime) a person can make.
But it is very true that MIL STD hardware legitimately costs much more than off the shelf nuts, bolts, etc.
The MIL STD stuff goes through a much more thorough and rigorous manufacturing process to insure integrity for critical fastening, climate survivability, etc.
But is all that over-engineering actually necessary in most cases? Possibly a toilet seat on a spaceship or fighter transport might be but otherwise, the answer is no.
Very true.
… and then they put it in a warehouse for 30 years, then throw it away.
For your next flight do you want the plane held up by a 4 cent bolt or a $400 bolt? Would that things were different.
Seems low. I know people doing this in suburban Virginia making 200k base + bonus + vacation pay
And the vacation pay goes a lot further when the hotel is supplied by a subcontractor.
Yep, as long as you do your job. Miss 2 deadlines, fired. We just fired a Prime – CACI
Budget?
Usually when you make a budget, you start with a spreadSheet showing last year’s expenses and revenues.
But the DoD cannot account for Tr$20 over the past decades.
In fact, it keeps supporting Kiev with billions it keeps finding in accounting errors!
How can you possibly make a budget if you have no idea what you have been spending?
Spent some time as a military contractor… from what I observed, about 800 billion would be straight up waste.
The military is the largest entitlement system in the country.
Entitlements were 52% of the US budget in 2022. Glad you dpn’y work for us anymore.
Living large on the government dime?
Don’t forget to pay your taxes….or go to prison. How does that make you feel?
They don’t send you to prison for taxes unless you commit fraud.
They will take your privileges and many rights away and let you compete with the subsidized unwashed masses.
I have a relative who is a high muckety-muck in a very large defense contracting firm. His net worth over the years has grown to about $10 million just from working for this one company. He has all of his children also working there, both of which are dragging down 6 figures in low-level positions. But just about everyone there makes that at a minimum.
This company is also a big contributor to just about every incumbents political campaign. And the beauty is that all of it is taxpayer’s money. But so-called conservatives are all in for these folks.
What’s the name of the company?
I’m not going to name it. This relative is easily found on the ‘net and I have no desire to cause him any hassles.
I had a neighbor who is a high muckety-muck in a very large Government. Over the years he’s accumulated well over 15 million dollars – that we know about. The sad thing is that he hasn’t actually made anything.