Tag: Government waste

The Depth of the Swamp

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Has Our Government Spent $21 Trillion Of Our Money Without Telling Us?

Guest Post by Laurence Kotlikoff

I am co-authoring this column with Mark Skidmore, a Professor of Economics at Michigan State University. 

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” ~ Article I, Section 9, Clause 7, The US Constitution

On July 26, 2016, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report “Army General Fund Adjustments Not Adequately Documented or Supported”.  The report indicates that for fiscal year 2015 the Army failed to provide adequate support for $6.5 trillion in journal voucher adjustments.  According to the GAO’s Comptroller General, “Journal vouchers are summary-level accounting adjustments made when balances between systems cannot be reconciled. Often these journal vouchers are unsupported, meaning they lack supporting documentation to justify the adjustment or are not tied to specific accounting transactions…. For an auditor, journal vouchers are a red flag for transactions not being captured, reported, or summarized correctly.”

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Rand Paul’s Festivus Airing Of Grievances Against Government Waste

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/25/2015 14:30 -0500

U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released a special ‘Festivus: Airing of Grievances for 2015’ edition of ‘The Waste Report,’ which is an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government.

The ‘Festivus: Airing of Grievances for 2015’ edition highlights over 30 examples of wasteful spending, misplaced priorities, and bad management in the federal government that have cost the taxpayer more than one billion dollars.

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‘Insolvent’ US Government Spends $375k To Study Senior-Citizen Dating Habits

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Talk about a difference between fantasy and reality.

It was just a few weeks ago that the International Monetary Fund predicted that Saudi Arabia would likely be bankrupt within the next five years.

Saudi Arabia’s financial position is deteriorating rapidly, and the government is burning through cash like a coked-up rock star.

Just a few months ago, the Saudi king visited the United States. When he touched down in his private jet he had a massive convoy of dozens of luxury vehicles waiting to whisk him away to the Four Seasons, where he had rented out the entire hotel for his stay, bankruptcy be damned.

The Saudis followed this up with plans now to build the world’s tallest skyscraper, which would stand a full kilometer in height.

Seriously, what are these people thinking?

What kind of idiot goes out of his way to blow through cash when he’s rapidly going broke?

Why, the United States of America of course.

Senator Lankford of Oklahoma recently released a scathing report of what he called “Federal Fumbles” and absolutely ridiculous wastes of money.

The report would be hilarious if it weren’t true… and funded with your own tax dollars, including:

  • $374,087 to study senior citizen dating habits;
  • $545,000 to teach members of Congress how to answer questions;
  • $4 million PER rebel to train fighters in Syria.

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