This is bad

[WhiteTailEER]

That should be left up to the company that makes the fighters. Not a govt agency where there is no accountability for cost. But, it was between me and Country. I don't scrape plaque, that's a job for a hygienist.[cheers]

You still don't understand ... the companies that make the aircraft (and there are simulators for everything, not just fighters) don't have the facilities for the distributed networking and everything else that goes into putting something like this together. A very high percentage of this work involves classified information that has requirements for security both physical and cyber. Companies aren't going to go into all of that expense.

And then you get into a litany of non-disclosure issues because the company that makes the airframe isn't the same company that makes the mission computers, which isn't the same company that makes the RADAR system, which isn't the same company that makes the FLIR. These companies aren't going to share all of the information with each other that would be required to make a fully functional simulator. Plus there are new sensors or equipment added after the fact, or simply software upgrades to specific equipment to integrate something new that the original manufacturer would have no idea of and wouldn't want to keep dealing with.

I don't understand where you get the idea that there is no accountability for cost. There absolutely is. I will agree that there is waste at times. But to think that the private companies are accountable for cost just isn't accurate either. Many of these companies historically have underbid contracts in order to win them, then go back later and ask for more money or more time when it would be too costly for the government to start over. Whether it's done by government employees or Boeing or Lockheed, it is still done under contract with government money.

And yes, the plaque comment was an unnecessary and inaccurate dig at your profession. I didn't mean anything personal by it, I just grow weary of you attacking my profession when you could fill a warehouse with the things you don't know about it. I don't mean that as an insult either, because how could you know unless you're in it? Plus when you add in the aspects that are classified and you can't know about it, there's no way that somebody should assume the public does know.

 

[DvlDog4WVU]

You are funny. You pretend to be centrist but it is very clear you are on the extreme right, apparently too ashamed to admit it.

"Then there are those of us who didn't specifically like him" - yet you defend and take up for him. He has attacked and vilified the media, he has attacked the entire judicial branch of government and he has attacked and denigrated the intelligence community.

You are doing the very same thing Trump is doing, attacking main stream media and the courts.

Ummmm, this thread posted by you, about one of the premier mainstream media outlets is predicated by a "click bait" style article where they effectively say, nothing out of the ordinary and no wrongdoing occurred.

Last time I checked, staunch advocacy for gay rights wasn't extreme right, Simple Jack.

 

[Airport]

You still don't understand ... the companies that make the aircraft (and there are simulators for everything, not just fighters) don't have the facilities for the distributed networking and everything else that goes into putting something like this together. A very high percentage of this work involves classified information that has requirements for security both physical and cyber. Companies aren't going to go into all of that expense.

And then you get into a litany of non-disclosure issues because the company that makes the airframe isn't the same company that makes the mission computers, which isn't the same company that makes the RADAR system, which isn't the same company that makes the FLIR. These companies aren't going to share all of the information with each other that would be required to make a fully functional simulator. Plus there are new sensors or equipment added after the fact, or simply software upgrades to specific equipment to integrate something new that the original manufacturer would have no idea of and wouldn't want to keep dealing with.

I don't understand where you get the idea that there is no accountability for cost. There absolutely is. I will agree that there is waste at times. But to think that the private companies are accountable for cost just isn't accurate either. Many of these companies historically have underbid contracts in order to win them, then go back later and ask for more money or more time when it would be too costly for the government to start over. Whether it's done by government employees or Boeing or Lockheed, it is still done under contract with government money.

And yes, the plaque comment was an unnecessary and inaccurate dig at your profession. I didn't mean anything personal by it, I just grow weary of you attacking my profession when you could fill a warehouse with the things you don't know about it. I don't mean that as an insult either, because how could you know unless you're in it? Plus when you add in the aspects that are classified and you can't know about it, there's no way that somebody should assume the public does know.

Govt by nature is wasteful. it isn't their money that they are spending, it's somebody else's money. There are multitudes of wasteful spending and you'd have to be living under a rock to not have seen where several hundred thousand were spent to study shrimp on a treadmill. Is everything govt does wasterful? Probably not, but most everything govt does could be done more efficiently. It's the awarding of contracts to do stupid stuff that bothers me. Senator coburn had that wasteful govt spending list that should make everybody mad. Trust me, the scraping the plaque didn't phase me. I'm just a tooth mechanic, anyway. I love the dental monitor ad on TV.

 

[WhiteTailEER]

Govt by nature is wasteful. it isn't their money that they are spending, it's somebody else's money. There are multitudes of wasteful spending and you'd have to be living under a rock to not have seen where several hundred thousand were spent to study shrimp on a treadmill. Is everything govt does wasterful? Probably not, but most everything govt does could be done more efficiently. It's the awarding of contracts to do stupid stuff that bothers me. Senator coburn had that wasteful govt spending list that should make everybody mad. Trust me, the scraping the plaque didn't phase me. I'm just a tooth mechanic, anyway. I love the dental monitor ad on TV.

There's wasteful spending in private industry as well. Or examples of industries not absorbing the entire costs of doing business and passing it along to the taxpayers. The difference is that in private industry that waste is just passed along to the consumer.

The shrimp on a treadmill thing would be a grant, not a contract. That's an entirely different animal. And if that wasteful government spending list had anything to do with DoD contracts, I'd bet dollars to donuts that it wouldn't nearly cover everything that went into it that made it so expensive.

Are there ways to be more efficient? Absolutely, and we should be looking at all of those things, but to say that it's just inherently wasteful because nobody cares about the money being spent isn't right either.

 

[Airport]

There's wasteful spending in private industry as well. Or examples of industries not absorbing the entire costs of doing business and passing it along to the taxpayers. The difference is that in private industry that waste is just passed along to the consumer.

The shrimp on a treadmill thing would be a grant, not a contract. That's an entirely different animal. And if that wasteful government spending list had anything to do with DoD contracts, I'd bet dollars to donuts that it wouldn't nearly cover everything that went into it that made it so expensive.

Are there ways to be more efficient? Absolutely, and we should be looking at all of those things, but to say that it's just inherently wasteful because nobody cares about the money being spent isn't right either.

The federal government spends nearly $1 million a year on fees for bank accounts with a balance of zero. TheWashington Post calls this “one of the oddest spending habits in Washington” and explains how it works.

 

[Airport]

There's wasteful spending in private industry as well. Or examples of industries not absorbing the entire costs of doing business and passing it along to the taxpayers. The difference is that in private industry that waste is just passed along to the consumer.

The shrimp on a treadmill thing would be a grant, not a contract. That's an entirely different animal. And if that wasteful government spending list had anything to do with DoD contracts, I'd bet dollars to donuts that it wouldn't nearly cover everything that went into it that made it so expensive.

Are there ways to be more efficient? Absolutely, and we should be looking at all of those things, but to say that it's just inherently wasteful because nobody cares about the money being spent isn't right either.

Buried in the Department of the Treasury's 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government is a short section titled "Unreconciled Transactions Affecting the Change in Net Position," which explains that these unreconciled transactions totaled $24.5 billion in 2003.[2]

The unreconciled transactions are funds for which auditors cannot account: The government knows that $25 billion was spent by someone, somewhere, on something, but auditors do not know who spent it, where it was spent, or on what it was spent. Blaming these unreconciled transactions on the failure of federal agencies to report their expenditures adequately, the Treasury report concludes that locating the money is "a priority."

The unreconciled $25 billion could have funded the entire Department of Justice for an entire year.

2.

 

[Airport]

There's wasteful spending in private industry as well. Or examples of industries not absorbing the entire costs of doing business and passing it along to the taxpayers. The difference is that in private industry that waste is just passed along to the consumer.

The shrimp on a treadmill thing would be a grant, not a contract. That's an entirely different animal. And if that wasteful government spending list had anything to do with DoD contracts, I'd bet dollars to donuts that it wouldn't nearly cover everything that went into it that made it so expensive.

Are there ways to be more efficient? Absolutely, and we should be looking at all of those things, but to say that it's just inherently wasteful because nobody cares about the money being spent isn't right either.

A recent audit revealed that between 1997 and 2003, the Defense Department purchased and then left unused approximately 270,000 commercial airline tickets at a total cost of $100 million. Even worse, the Pentagon never bothered to get a refund for these fully refundable tickets. The GAO blamed a system that relied on department personnel to notify the travel office when purchased tickets went unused.[3]

Auditors also found 27,000 transactions between 2001 and 2002 in which the Pentagon paid twice for the same ticket. The department would purchase the ticket directly and then inexplicably reimburse the employee for the cost of the ticket. (In one case, an employee who allegedly made seven false claims for airline tickets professed not to have noticed that $9,700 was deposited into his/her account). These additional transactions cost taxpayers $8 million.

This $108 million could have purchased seven Blackhawk helicopters, 17 M1 Abrams tanks, or a large supply of additional body armor for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

3. Em

 

[Airport]

There's wasteful spending in private industry as well. Or examples of industries not absorbing the entire costs of doing business and passing it along to the taxpayers. The difference is that in private industry that waste is just passed along to the consumer.

The shrimp on a treadmill thing would be a grant, not a contract. That's an entirely different animal. And if that wasteful government spending list had anything to do with DoD contracts, I'd bet dollars to donuts that it wouldn't nearly cover everything that went into it that made it so expensive.

Are there ways to be more efficient? Absolutely, and we should be looking at all of those things, but to say that it's just inherently wasteful because nobody cares about the money being spent isn't right either.

4. Credit Card Abuse at the Department of Defense

The Defense Department has uncovered its own credit card scandal. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 for admission to entertainment events, $48,250 for gambling, $69,300 for cruises, and $73,950 for exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[5]

5. Medicare Overspending

Medicare wastes more money than any other federal program, yet its strong public support leaves lawmakers hesitant to address program efficiencies, which cost taxpayers and Medicare recipients billions of dollars annually.

For example, Medicare pays as much as eight times what other federal agencies pay for the same drugs and medical supplies.[6] The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently compared the prices paid by Medicare and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care program for 16 types of medical equipment and supplies, which account for one-quarter of Medicare's equipment and supplies purchases. The evidence showed that Medicare paid an average of more than double what the VA paid for the same items. The largest difference was for saline solution, with Medicare paying $8.26 per liter compared to the $1.02 paid by the VA.[7] (See Tabl

 

[bornaneer]

Washington (CNN)-The FBI is not expected to pursue any charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn regarding a phone call with Russia's ambassador.

 

[DvlDog4WVU]

Washington (CNN)-The FBI is not expected to pursue any charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn regarding a phone call with Russia's ambassador.

Liberal logic applied, it's all good, nothing wrong. Would the left like some quotes pulled from July?

 

[wvu2007]

So here we are, 7 months later.

 

[WVU82_rivals]