By Bob Barney
With the talk about cutting the Defense budget, I would like to know that if the military cannot account for 25% of their spending (More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.), how can we not have an immediate 25% spending cut in military spending. I believe that we could easily reduce defense spending by 50% and remain safe. Do we need troops in Europe? It's time Republicans stop taking bribes (called donations) for the defense contractors and start working on saving this nation from bankruptcy. Until we cut the trillions in fraud, waste and abuse; I don't want to hear a peep about needing to cut Medicare and Social Security. I am a patriot. Stop the waste, and I'll give back everything! I'll give back my Medicare (I am not eligible) and Social Security (ibd), but not until I am convinced we have an honest budget! As Ronald Reagan would say, "I paid for this Medicare!"
Here is the rest of that CBS story:
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.
He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.