Shame on CSPAN. No link, no transcript. I just finished listening to this on CSPAN.
Here's the link for this February 28, 2012 Senate hearing:
Top Defense Heads Outline $525B DoD Budget
Most of the CUT ENTITLEMENT SPENDING, not DOD is in the first half of the hearing. I would also like to add a mini-rant: Stop this "Cuts over the next ten year talk". It makes us all have to use math and divide whatever $amount presented by 10. Keep it simple, or are you all trying to obfuscate? Whatever, end of mini-rant.
Try to keep your blood pressure in conrol. Panetta actually loses his cool at one point, he is so adamant that its Entitlement Programs that need to be slashed. Almost in the same sentence, one reason he touts as a justification to go easy on Defense is to protect RETIREMENT BENEFITS promised to the military.
Here's the link. You can listen to him while you peruse other things. But do prepare your ears to perk up and pay attention when the word ENTITLEMENT or Social Secuirty or Food Stamps or Medicaid come up.
This is the Senate Hearing on the Defense Department Budget, but there is more bloviating about ENTITLEMENTS than solutions to the Defence Department cuts.
SOME COMIC RELIEF
So, where does the Budget spend it's money?
18% PAST Military. Pensions? Veterans Admin? 36% Current Military. If you listen to the Senate Hearing, you won't hear this at all. Au Contraire!
54% OF THE BUDGET IS FOR MILITARY SPENDING?
Add to that, whatever % is spent for Security and we begin to get the picture. Our few, and really modest ENTITLEMENT PROGRAMS are under serious attack, even by the Secretare of Defense.
But hell will probably freeze over before we ask the 1% to pay more taxes.
And the deficit? Do they think we have forgotten?
Contractor Misconduct since 1995 equls $26668.3 million. A mere $25+ billion through 2010. That's what POGO has caught. Could POGO have missed any?
ONE MORE TIME, Social Security is NOT paid out of the budget.
Oddly, many of the top military contractor fraudsters are also companies Congress Members invest in.
POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD)
Most Popular Congressional Investments, 2010
I'm so sick of corruption I could hurl. There is a ton of corruption involved in military contracts.
It takes two to tango. For every corrupt company official willing to grease palms for contracts, there have to be willing corrupt contract acquisition personnel, both within and without the military.
You'd think hundreds would be convicted by now. No. Appallingly few have been convicted, although there has been a 400% increase under the Obama Administration. Still the same, small potatoes:
It seems that a lot of the convictions resulted in information given up by others instead of shoe leather investigations.
What is really disconcerting is the reality that Congress is STILL trying to get on top of this, and hasn't solved the $Billions being wasted. The problem lies within the Rumsfeld stripped down Pentagon:
Pentagon seeks to strengthen acquisition workforce, dated March 2, 2012
This sure sounds like a Rumsfeldian statement, in my opinion.
The Pentagon’s request for $274.2 million for the Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund reflects its “continuing efforts to strengthen the acquisition workforce, which includes efforts to right-size and right-shape the workforce,” a department spokeswoman said in an email to Government Executive.
From the same www.govexec.com document:
The Obama administration’s early efforts to reverse its predecessor’s tendency to increase the use of outside contractors in acquisitions slowed toward the end of the tenure of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The acquisition reforms and guidance of the past three years were intended to hold contractors more accountable for providing value, she added. “We have not seen, nor do we expect to see, a substantial shift to in-house.”
To quote Dan Gordon, who left his post as Obama’s administrator for procurement policy in late 2011
“Almost every contracting challenge we face -- in particular, poor acquisition planning, unjustified sole-source contracts and inadequate oversight of contractors -- can be traced back to our failure during the 16 years before this administration to invest in the federal acquisition workforce,” he said.
“While I understand the reluctance to hire thousands of new federal employees, rebuilding our federal acquisition capability represents a sensible investment where money spent on hiring and training should pay off in terms of improved contracting, meaning a reduction in waste and fraud.”
But it is disconcerting that Obama appointed William Lynn, former Senior Vice President at Raytheon to the Department of Defense, considering that Raytheon ranks #5 on the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database!
As Deputy Secretary, Mr. Lynn would be involved in the process of budgeting and acquisitions, in addition to running the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department.
Well, maybe that can work in our favor. Not that Mr. Lynn is a thief, but the old adage "It takes a thief to catch a thief" could make sense and Raytheon isn't #5 on the Contractor Misconduct list for nothing.
So Leon, you incredibly powerful DC man who probably knows everyone's secrets on the hill by now:
SHUT UP ABOUT ENTITLEMENTS, K?
Thank you
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
If you are interested in more background, here are some links I have perused. It's an interesting topic: Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Military Contractors, etc
For instance, here's the list of the worst corporate fraudsters from POGO:
Federal Contractor Misconduct Database
2007 Fraud Probe http://www.armytimes.com/...
2009 Cockerham case
http://www.justice.gov/...
2009 3rd Defendent pleads guilty
http://www.justice.gov/...
2011 2 Contractors Indicted
http://www.nytimes.com/...
2007 Lee Dynamics International Banned from being contractor
http://www.nytimes.com/...
2008 Then Lee Dynamics International gets new contract (rolling eyes)
http://anabolicminds.com/...
2008 Lt Col Levonda Selph guilty
http://www.newshoggers.com/...
Sigir Webite
http://www.sigir.mil/
About Sigir
http://www.sigir.mil/...
Graph of Convictions, page 117, List of Cases pages 141-146 - It's a sorry tale, but you can read about all the progress in Iraq in this Sigir report. It's what The Hill is reading.
http://issuu.com/...
Open Statement investigation Waste, fraud abuse
http://www.govexec.com/...
Walter Resigns 2008
http://bizgov.wordpress.com/...
March 2, 2012 Indictment
http://www.govexec.com/...
March 1, 2012 Senators go after waste, fraud, abuse (yawn...snark)
http://www.govexec.com/...
2011 Sigir Report
http://www.govexec.com/...
2005 Sigir Report
http://www.sigir.mil/...
2006 Sub of KBR Iraq Fraud
http://www.justice.gov/...
2011 Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA, list of contractors disbarred/banned)
http://www.dcaa.mil/
Christopher Cahall, KBR subcontractor indicted
http://www.justice.gov/...
Christopher Cahall, KBR subcontractor sentenced to 3 years, $10,000 fine $1.4Mil fraud
http://www.joc.com/...
2011 Sigir report Section 5
http://www.sigir.mil/...
Coalition Provisional Authority overview
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Coalition Provisional Authority in-depth analysis
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/...