News Flash: Pentagon Wastes Millions of Taxpayer Dollars!
In an ironically fitting tribute to Ronald Reagan, who spent money on national defense like, well, a drunken sailor, the General Accounting Office has released the latest in long-running series of exposes detailing just how poorly the Pentagon keeps track of taxpayer dough. Twenty years ago, it was $640 toilet seats that fueld public indignation. Now it's massive amounts of unused airline tickets:
Pentagon spent an estimated $100 million on airline tickets that were never used and didn't seek refunds, a government investigation to be released today shows. The military also reimbursed employees as much as $8 million for tickets actually bought by the Defense Department, according to a second report from the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress.
Hmm, maybe this is a domestic variation on Iran-Contra, a clandestine way of bailing out the stinking airline industry (in addtion, of course, to all the federal largess they got after 9/11).
Whole story here.
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The Pentagon may be wastefull, but it's nothing compared to the waste of federal govt social welfare spending since military spending only accounts for about 20% of federal outlays.
The big spending bucks go to social security, medicare, medicaid, welfare, etc. - and ALL of that is a waste!
Oh, I don't think $100 million is anywhere near enough to prop up ailing airlines... I think it's just safe to assume that there was no hidden agenda, just a massive case of ignorance and disregard for taxpayers' dollars.
So, if this "Pentagon" outfit is wasting millions then it must be way overvalued, its stock price should fall... What? Oh yeah, never mind.
Iran-contra? Nah. SOP for a government entity.
I spent $300 on Southwest tickets over 1.5 years ago. I couldn't get a refund and I never took a flight or sold them. Every waking moment that eats me up inside. They need more people like me there.