Tax Dollars Squandered By Air Force?

Is Your Money Flying Off Into The Wild Blue Yonder? CBS News Investigates

(CBS)  You've heard about soldiers in Iraq who've had to fight without the proper equipment.

It turns out while they're "doing without," the military has been ordering, and storing, billions of dollars in other equipment it doesn't need, CBS News investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports for Follow the Money.

A slick video produced by the military highlights all that extra property and a program that tries to find uses for it.

It shows desks, chairs, filing cabinets, boots, Kevlar helmets and binoculars - paid for with your tax dollars. The equipment often ends up being given away, sold for pennies on the dollar - or destroyed.

The military has so much “excess inventory,” there are dozens of giant warehouses around the nation, like one Attkisson visited at Fort Meade, Md. And there’s an entire agency, employing 1,400 people, set up to do nothing but manage it all.

Within the military, the Air Force is the biggest offender. That's according to government investigators with the GAO, who found the Air Force doesn't need half of the spare parts it has on hand.

But here's what's even worse: Half of what's on order isn't needed, either!

A big chunk is tagged for possible "disposal" even before it's delivered: $235 million dollars worth, according to new figures from the GAO.

“The idea that over $200 million in spare parts that has not yet come into the Air Force is already marked for disposal!” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “They’re planning to get rid of it and it hasn’t even come in!”

Sanders wants Congress to cut Air Force funding if it doesn't get a serious grip on its inventory problem.

For example, the Air Force already has hundreds of aircraft ducts they don't need (that’s 214, at $6.9 million). But more are on order. It has thousands of unneeded aircraft blades, and thousands more on the way - 7,460 at $2 million, to be precise.

It costs up to $30 million dollars a year just to store the stuff they don't need.

Nobody at the Air Force would agree to an interview, but told us they're "taking steps" to fix the problems and to "serve the best interest of the American public."

“We have almost $19 billion in absolute waste in spare parts in the Air Force,” Sanders said.

They are taxpayer dollars squandered in the wild blue yonder.

[sgtrds]

When Clinton became president he had Gore go after military waste. He found, among many other examples, that the US Army had a 300 year supply of truck tires, with more coming in every year, for a truck that had already been phased out of service more then a decade before. No one had bothered to cancel the automatic re-ordering, but you can be sure the suppliers were making a ton of money and weren''t going to say anything. Sounds like when the Democrats retake the White House we need to call Gore back into service to throw out the waste and fraudulent contracts from the past 7 years. Considering the war suppliers are paying off the top republicans in the White House you can be sure the republicans won''t do it.

[brianp555]

I had just listened to my 71 year old retired mother verbalize her concerns over paying the over $40 a month increase in her insurance for the upcoming year when I heard this report on the CBS evening news.

This is no less than CRIMINAL. Our tax dollars are treated with so little respect. Money that is given in GOOD FAITH is not being used to better our country or its citizens.

Outrage doesn''t even begin to describe what I felt after sitting there listening to the staggering amounts of money that is wasted on duplicate orders of supplies that are already obsolete in the eyes of the various military divisions. The terms millions and billions were used to describe the amounts of money in question. At some point they become unfathomable--truly beyond understanding, much like my lack of understanding surrounding this scandalous example of the governmental mismanagement of our tax dollars that goes on daily.

[cfin5]

This is ridiculous! If they had a "thrift clause" to the money they have left over in their budget and everyone pitched in to make sure that money isn''t wasted,......dividing up the extra money to give a "thrift bonus" to the enlisted personnel would be far more sensible. Seeing what their wages are, I say they need it and YESTERDAY at that!

[coolprophet]

RON PAUL WILL RESTORE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY RON PAUL IS GOING TO WIN THIS THING
"Ron Paul doesn''t have a chance to win. You can''t fight City Hall. Death and taxes." It''s all a bunch of enemy propoganda rolling across the our picket line. We saw it all throughout the Twentieth Century. Now, in the Twenty-first Century, it''s time for us to stand-up tall, and to let the establishment know that we''re not going to let them cram us into their rat maze anymore. We will no longer submit to their agenda of dehumanization and disenfranchisement. I don''t know about you, but I''m concerned about what''s happening in this broken and aching world I wake-up to each morning. I''m concerned about the systems of control wielded against us each day, and about the neverending, circular conflict between power and powerlessness which has been so corrosive to the American spirit. I want freedom, and more of it--not tyranny, and that''s what you should want too. It''s up to each and everyone of us to turn-loose just some of the greed, the hatred, the envy, and yes, the fear, because that is their most effective method of controlling us--make us feel pathetic and small so we''ll, willingly, give-up our sovereignty, our liberty and our destiny.

[sbb2211]

People do not understand that the VAST majority of funding that Congress gives the military HAS to be spent as Congress dictates.

This is all part of PORK SPENDING!

THANK YOU DEMOCRATS and say goodbye to your majority in 2008!

HA HA HA HA HA!

[annefrank10]

This is one of the reasons we support John Edwards. And a group in Iowa of 10K members has endorsed him because of his commitment to CUT WASTEFUL Pentagon spending!!
And yes - it''s pork - derived from Congress - where Washington defense lobbyists roam the halls handing out bribe money to Congress critters to vote for massive Pentagon spending.
John Edwards has never taken a dime from Washington lobbyists that have funded Hillary''s and Obama''s political careers. And Hillary has received more donations from the defense industry than any other candidate!

[annefrank10]

This is one of the reasons we support John Edwards. And a group in Iowa of 10K members has endorsed him because of his commitment to CUT WASTEFUL Pentagon spending!!
And yes - it''s pork - derived from Congress - where Washington defense lobbyists roam the halls handing out bribe money to Congress critters to vote for massive Pentagon spending.
John Edwards has never taken a dime from Washington lobbyists that have funded Hillary''s and Obama''s political careers. And Hillary has received more donations from the defense industry than any other candidate!

[annefrank10]

This is one of the reasons we support John Edwards. And a group in Iowa of 10K members has endorsed him because of his commitment to CUT WASTEFUL Pentagon spending!!
And yes - it''s pork - derived from Congress - where Washington defense lobbyists roam the halls handing out bribe money to Congress critters to vote for massive Pentagon spending.
John Edwards has never taken a dime from Washington lobbyists that have funded Hillary''s and Obama''s political careers. And Hillary has received more donations from the defense industry than any other candidate!

[annefrank10]

Sorry for the multiple posts.

[Con Mohrat]

The previous headline reads

"Gates: War Funding Fights Undercut Troops
Says Congress'' Intermittent Funding Of Iraq, Afghan Wars Risks Military Gains Made"

It is amazing how some think we should pour more money into Invasions and Occupations, not knowing where the money actually goes.

I have seen a few examples of waste and fraud myself in the military, but I am sure someone else has seen worse.

For example, old generals who will never fly in war continue to draw flying pay, and get their left-seat time for "training", only to fly to their homes, friends, or resorts. I was stationed in Palm Beach AFB, FL and observed that. When the base was closed in 1959, everyone took AF property to their homes, and they added more Air Police to guard the main gate; but no one watched the railway engine leaving through the side fence, loaded with materials. Other supplies that should have been inventoried and shipped out were bashed with rocks and left.
On another base, as usual, there was excess budget left over, and we bought anything anybody asked for, including IBM Correcting Selectric Typewriters and junked good ones.
Mistakes also contributed to the waste. Someone ordered 5-gal drums of de-icer but the Unit of Issue was changed to 55-gal drums, and a train pulled in. They sold the new excess de-icer as cheap salvage.

YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS AT WORK

[neobrian-2009]

SOB2211 Who Are U Tryin to Fool ?
We`re Not as Stupid As YOU & Poop4brains,.Get a Life ! Not one person thinks you have any sense at all( except maybe your closet pal,Poop-packer),..Go back to your trailer court and pay the boy at the cyber-cafe.

[sgtrds]

When I was a Sgt in the Air Force one of my jobs was helping the office NCOIC spend the departments money each month. We had a set amount of money that was in our budget for computer room supplies, paper, paint, etc. If we hadn''t spent our allotment by the end of the month we would go over to base supply and buy more stuff so our next years allotment for that month wouldn''t be reduced in the next budget. The things we bought at the end of the month were never even taken off the shelf, but ownership was transferred to our department, so at one point we had more the 100 arctic parkas for an office that only had 20 Airmen in it. We ended up with 50 extra gallons of paint for a five room office. If another outfit needed parkas or paint they''d go to base supply and see our parkas and paint and would have to come to us to trade for them. This was crazy, but it came in handy when the cooks in the Combat Support squadron wanted stuff and we wanted food for an office party. Great steaks, ribs, chicken, etc.

[macusweil]

"today, too many politicians and lobbyists are spending America into ruin. We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don%u2019t cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future %u2014 and yours.

In addition, the Federal Reserve, our central bank, fosters runaway debt by increasing the money supply %u2014 making each dollar in your pocket worth less. The Fed is a private bank run by unelected officials who are not required to be open or accountable to %u201Cwe the people.%u201D

Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia, because their central banks also finance our runaway spending. "

~Congressman Ron Paul

[jonesforch]

Tax Dollars Squandered By Air Force?
Is Your Money Flying Off Into The Wild Blue Yonder? CBS News Investigates.

First thing that Snags all you is money. But DID anyone notice the question mark after the name of this article. Or the question mark after Yonder. Makes you the people make your own minds up or believe what they read?

MERRY CHRISTMAS........

[dustfullman]

What do you expect. If you follow the money farther, you will find Republican Welfare Cases smoking the big cigars. The fleecing of America continues.

[coolprophet]

YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES
America is tipping way too far back in her easy chair. Something BIG is about to happen, and I predict this upcoming 2008 Presidential Election will be extremely pivotal. I''m not going to name any candidates. You probably already know who my favorite one is. But let me make my point absolutely clear: If you think times are boring, think again. If you think the future is predictable, think again. My advice to everyone who reads this is to be thoughtful. Trust only that wisdom which is your own. 90% of mainstream media in this country is controlled by fewer than 20 different organizations. Unfortunately, they, like the sold-out political ****** who pretend to serve us in Washington, were bought and paid for by the military-industrial complex decades ago. Therefore, mainsteam media will paint pictures they want to paint, and people will open their minds to pictures they want to see. So, be skeptical. Be wise. Research issues and talking points on your own, and share what you learn with those you love. The future of your family tree may hang in the balance.

[jonesforch]

dustfullman

WHAT no Merry Christmas?

[docadams3]

Let''s not forget the money we spend to **** off the Russians over Star Wars on their doorstep. Exactly how do we profit from that activity?

[vampire1288]

i rmember lots of stuff that i traded around for as that was part of my duties.. anything that was wanted by any section, contacted me. and i would trade something that we had for it.. ie gasoline, oil, ammo. food etc...

[Krazcarl]

Tax dollars squandered by military is this news been going on snce the country was founded,,,

[mcvet]

Tax dollars squandered by military is this news been going on snce the country was founded,,,


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Posted by crzmeat at 05:04 AM : Dec 22, 2007
+ report abuse

What good do lies like this do? Just before we went into WW II there wasn''t enough Military Hardware to provide help for England. If we can''t be honest and refuse to listen to fascist, who obviously do not care about the average guy, we are lost. I''ve worked for and with the military for years. NO part of our government at any level waste tax dollars like they do. Sieg Heil Bush

[mcvet]

dustfullman

WHAT no Merry Christmas?


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Posted by Jonesforch at 12:32 AM : Dec 22, 2007
+ report abuse

LOL Sparky, the Religious Reich and their War have Killed Christmas... it''s over! Just look around you, no lights... no brotherhood... Nope! If you ain''t Christian and don''t hold to the likes of Pat Robertson, there is NO Christmas anymore. RIP Sieg Heil Bush!

[samrensho]

So what''s new. Better to have this inventory to throw away than to waste in on frivolous items like health care for kids, poverty, housing, Katrina repairs, repairing roads and bridges, etc. Glad the government has its collective head screwed on right.

[formrusmcsgt]

"Sanders wants Congress to cut Air Force funding if it doesn''t get a serious grip on its inventory problem."

You can tell Sanders isn''t a businessman. If we have $19 billion being thrown away, cut the budget by $19 billion. Cutting the funding will make them get a grip.

[bluharley]

I worked on a money sink for the Airforce in Colorado called Wargame 2000. A simulator that didn''t work, and never could work, but the Airforce kept pumping a lot of money into it. Wasting $BILLIONS is nothing new for the gov.

[slim1h2o]

I worked on a money sink for the Airforce in Colorado called Wargame 2000. A simulator that didn''''t work, and never could work, but the Airforce kept pumping a lot of money into it. Wasting $BILLIONS is nothing new for the gov.

Posted by TuthmosisIII at 08:16 AM : Dec 22, 2007

You should have ratted that project out, when you were on it. Why wait? People like you are the problem in this country.

Speak out when you see injustices, don''t keep quiet about it.

[ghostcommand]

This is just another paragraph in the book "The Largest Robbery In History Of Taxpayer Dollars" being written before your very eyes by the Bush/Cheney Fascist, Criminal Enterprise.This mis-administration has increased the National Debt by 57% and by the time they leave office it will be 70%. For every man. woman, and child that is over $30,000. Of that amount $5,000 is for the Iraq War. In 2006 over $800,000,000,000 was paid in interest on that debt. The Criminals keep demanding more from Congress and are using rhetorical blackmail to get their way. The Gop lock-step, rubber-stamping brown shirts, the RNC and all of it''s minions, and the brown shirt poodle journalists bear responsibility as well as this mis-administration that is stealing the future of your children and grandchildren.

[kevzgrl]

Ooooohhh, say it ain''t so - the idiots in charge of our military forces wasting taxpayer''s money??? What a shock...

[prinzowhales]

Now, why doesn''t CBS ask about the $2.3 Trillion that Rumsfeld said was missing from Pentagon accounts on September 10, 2001?

This is Veblen''s Conspicuous Consumption gone wild... it is a socialized conspicuous consumption whereby the people have no word on what their money is to be spent upon. This is why we need to keep a leash on the federal government--not aggrandize it with more tax money...more power to create more debt...

The animal Hucksterbee and others have brought out the Social Security System ''running out of money'' theme that crops up every election cycle...we are in the process of spending more on the Stupid Peoples'' War in Afghanistan and Iraq than would be needed to take care of that ''crisis''.

And!...many Americans are getting ready to continue this bloody and expensive farce...the ''War'' on terror that leaves our borders wide open...by voting for a mainstream Demo-publican candidate...to continue the ''War'' on drugs that jails our Border Patrol agents who do their jobs and interdict drug dealers only to be prosecuted and imprisoned by a Regime whose ''Justice'' Department is headed by a Zio-Nazi supporter of torture...whose foreign intel apparatus known as the CIA has its rendition planes crash in Mexico loaded with tons of cocaine...a Regime nominally headed by a coke-headed dry drunk whose brother is a partner of narcotics traffickers and whose biggest supporters have an interest in the planes that went down!

[creeper00]

Well, someone has to keep the military industrial complex propped up! According to what I can see of this "administration" that''s what they think,taxpayers are for.

Follow the money.

[Krazcarl]

Mcvet,,,Before WWII we weren''t looking at another war after WWI we thought we didn''t need to {remember the war to end all wars} so we were caught with our pants down.Besides what does any of this have to do with the militaies waste of tax dollors heck there sinking navel vessels for artificiale reefs were not the best equiped were the most wasteful period.

[excoachken]

What about the $$$ they squandered by donating it to the L. Ron Paul campaign?

[poopusbuttus]

FOOLS! YOU LIBERAL, LIBERAL DUMMY FOOLS!!!!

[Scooter68]

annefrank10 _ You must be joking right? John Edwards, the little rich boy who spends how much on his haircuts and lives on Easy Street in what part of town? That is the boy you are counting on to cuts costs? Get a grip.
Military waste should be exposed and corrected but to act like people sit around trying to figure out ways to waste money just shows how anti-military you are. The military is expected to be ready at a moments notice to put troops on the ground anywhere in the world for whatever purpose the administration deems worthwhile and by God don''t get there unprepared general or we''ll dress you down in front of a congressional committee. (Made up of people who denied the general''s requests so he could be prepared to do your bidding.) If you want to expose waste look at projects like the V-22 the aircraft nobody really wants. The Marines will use it because they have no choice - funding for anything else was stripped to pay for the V-22. Until a couple of plane loads of troops get roasted in it''s wreckage, congressmen will pat themselves on the back about forcing the military to go ahead with the project - once the bodies count grows high enough then they will drag generals before congressional committees to explain why they, the generals didn''t stop the project.
Yeah Little Johnny Edwards is the perfect example of who we need making decisions on how we spend our money.

[Con Mohrat]

Eventually, these Dubya invasions and half-hearted occupations will end, and those surviving troops will return--RETURN TO WHAT?

The troops will return to an America that swore to give them all very best care if they required it, etc etc.

WHAT WILL THEY REALLY GET?
The VA will be severely underfunded as in ALL previous wars. They will be told to take care of themselves. Check all the following where Americans got "care" for doing their government''s bidding.

Examples: The cases on cancer where atom bombs were tested are languishing in the courts waiting for the people to die. Those with PTSD from previous wars were riduculed as shirks, layabouts, drug addicts, etc. The government was in denial about Agent Orange in Viet Nam. And recently, check Katrina victims who rioted this week, two years after the storm, and now they want to stop paying for any of it.

Fellow veterans, why do you think you will be different?

[beehive21-2009]

Everyone wastes $$$ in this country it''s the gig,look how much is wasted on homeless shelters, because there to lazy or brain dead to care themselves and the DEA,EPA,we waste $$$ as a nation so you can walk on the moon someday.

[missingamerica]

The military has the exact same problem that Congress has.

If you have the pull to throw sufficient tax dollars at a corporation, you can either work or lobby for that corporation for a nice chunk of change when you leave the military or Congress, as the case may be.

Until the revolving doors are jammed this sort of waste - if not fraud - is practically inevitable.

[rowdytexan2]

...and let''s not forget the weaponery that gets bought, loaded up, and lobbed off into the ocean in practice...

As a young Navy red-shirt my son came home from his first stint on the USS Eisenhower. In one of our talks, he said, I know I''m no expert, but it really is puzzling to me that when we''re out there practicing maneuvers and our planes would lob stuff out there that never blew up. I kept asking, wasn''t that suppose to blow something up? Three out of six times, the missile never fired. They told me those things cost a couple of million each, and they don''t work? What''s with that?

It''s not just a matter of quantity and gross miss spending, but it''s also a matter of does this *** work? Does anybody keep a tally on things that turn out to be duds? Or do they just mark it off as ''pilot error''?

[sbb2211]

"SOB2211 Who Are U Tryin to Fool ?
We`re Not as Stupid As YOU & Poop4brains,.Get a Life ! Not one person thinks you have any sense at all( except maybe your closet pal,Poop-packer),..Go back to your trailer court and pay the boy at the cyber-cafe.

Posted by neobrian at 10:42 PM : Dec 21, 2007"

Ooh! You are scaring me.

You want some references?

http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/wheeler_lipstick.htm
http://independent.org/publications/policy_reports/detail.asp?type=full&id=21
http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0707/Earmarks_in_the_House_defense_bill.html
http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/4172
http://mpinkeyes.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/nancy-pelosi-adds-15-earmarks-to-defense-spending-bill/

The language is kind of long in these, so you may want to have your mommy read it to you as a bedtime story.

Merry Christmas!

[ov442]

{If a "investigative" news oganization, such as CBS claims to be, really wanted to demonstrate their scoop-worthiness, then let them find and write a story on the military spending tax-dollars on a worthwhile project. -Posted by Nancy_Naive }

Yeah, you sure are naive.
The american populace is set up to believe that the military has brains enough to put their budget into areas of pressing need and usefulness. The White house and pentagon team up to convince you of that.
Therefore the "Scoop" or news story would be any evidence of wrongdoin, fraud, kickback contracts, government waste, military waste, ineffective uses, or bad management of resources while our soldiers fight in a war they were sent to without adequate protection, needed modifications and armoring of vehicles to help safety, and vehicles known to be safer such as the one the Military declined to order until Joe Biden of congress got behind it and ordered them to help save lives of our soldiers.

[neobrian-2009]

Their KING CloWn is About to lose his CroWn
Bushynomics-Rape the people,rid them of their money,..Tell them Lies,.." Corruption has Never been So Deeply rooted as it is now,..The Evil Roots of Resident Shrub have entwined Our Very existence as a free nation.With W`s help,corporate USA,is " The Epitome of True Evil ",...Greed,Corruption,Lies are the platform of the GOP sect.
Remember " Friends NEVER let friends vote republiCON"
This pit that Shrub has dug for us is Very deep,...Do Your part,..Do Everything Possible to rid the USA of this dreaded " Culture Club of Toe-Tapping Greedy Liars ",...It`s Our Future,..

[watcher269-2009]

See what our military is becoming! It is time to start taxing Religion or abolish the southern christian movements.

For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure.

That''s the message directed at Fort Jackson soldiers, some of whom appear in photographs in government issued fatigues, holding rifles in one hand, and Bibles in their other hand.

Frank Bussey, director of Military Ministry at Fort Jackson, has been telling soldiers at Fort Jackson that "government authorities, police and the military = God''s Ministers,"

[homespunlady]

I remember an old B movie about military procurement where every crackpot lined up to SELL his latest overpriced War machine. I think it followed a story line about a pink submarine or something like that. Trying to remember the name but it was a pretty good satire about this. Oh well there has been several movies on this clear back to before WWII.

The only consolation is that a lot of that excess gets funneled to other governmental agencies and even schools, etc. through property disposal. There are occasional auctions for things like noncritical items - scrap metal, office furniture and leftover building materials. I once bought a really great set of 50''s kitchen cabinets that were great for me although "outdated" for military housing.
I just want to see the usable excess recycled or "passed down".
With the economy rapidly collapsing in on itself - see all the articles about the housing devaluation ripples affecting property taxes and LOCAL government revenues - I expect A LOT MORE of the SMART local governments will be scanning and ordering from those "excess lists".

At least maybe SOME of our tax dollars will return to the taxpayers that way.

[gunownerdan]

Why shouldn''t the Air Force be part of the raping of America?
Everyone else is doing it!
The Military Industrial Complex is one hungry monster.

[pensacola88]

This waste is partly because of an Air Force Regulation that declared when budgeted funds are not spent, they have to return the unspent funds, and future funding will be at a reduced level - most likely to the level actually spent in the previous year. No Air Force officer gets brownie points or promotions if they save operating expenses. They actually loose their political future if they over-spend and underspend. Most hoard funds and then spend like crazy every September. In the Air Force, the spending culture is also paralleled with the power culture. If you want promotions in the Air Force, you must spend the exact same dollar amount of your annual budget every year. One year, those worthless IBM punch cards were ordered by the millions, just because IBM had them in stock and the Air Force had extra money to spend. It took years to get those IBM cards out of circulation.

A change in the Air Force Regs would put an end to this silly nonsense that has been going on for years.

[neobrian-2009]

SOB2211 Learned to cut & paste !
Give him a star !He`s now the smartest boy in the Kings`trailer court.A hint for the new year,don`t run with scissors.
Merry Christmas !