GOVERNMENT WASTE

- FEDERAL –

Date	Gov’t Agency	Who, What, Where?
07/11/02 09/24/04	Defense Department	Halliburton – It’s Nice to Have Friends Most of the contracts Halliburton has obtained from the government have been sole source procurement, without a competitive bidding process. Since the invasion of Iraq, Halliburton has seen their share of the pie increase from $468 million to $3.92 billion (the government authorized $30 billion in emergency money to fight terrorism), no doubt because of certain influences in the White House. Oh boy, the fox is in the hen house again. Obviously, Halliburton is not the only scoundrel making off with tidy profits but isn’t someone watching over the hen house? That’s the job of the Defense Contracts Audit Agency (DCAA), which rarely invokes its power to disbar a contractor from doing business with the government. But DCAA did recommend in a confidential memo that Halliburton should be suspended or debarred from future government contracts. DCAA showed that one of Halliburton’s subsidiaries, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) could not account for $1.8 billion in charges out of a total of $4.3 billion spent on the LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) III contract for the U. S. Army to provide logistical support for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. $1.8 billion lost in the paper work? We’re not talking about losing track of $3.14. Can you imagine running any business when you really don’t know why or with whom you spent that kind of money? It’s obvious that none of these clowns have ever worked in the private sector. This is pure, unadulterated nonsense. When they spend that kind of money there must be a paper trail in the form on invoices and checks, unless the money was handed out in the form of cash. But that’s another issue worthy of an in-depth investigation. In 1997, KBR billed the government for sheets of plywood at $85.98 that actually cost $14.06 for work they did in the Balkans, plus they billed to have their offices cleaned 4 times a day. The DCAA has charged Halliburton for overcharging for fuel, food and other services they have provided in Iraq, while the Justice Department is investigating business activities they had in Nigeria and Iran. The Army paid KBR $750,000 for work at a Fort Ord in California that cost about $125,000. What other mastodon skeletons are hidden in the closet? In June 2005, Bunny Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers top-contracting official, recently blew the whistle on Halliburton when she stated, “I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my career.” So how does the Army respond? Now what would you expect? They awarded Halliburton $4.97 billion in additional work in Iraq on top of the questionable $9.1 billion they have billed to-date. Now in all fairness, an Army spokesman stated that the award was actually made in May but the Army saw no purpose in divulging it to the general public until now. According to the Star-Ledger newspaper, Senator Frank Lautenberg, who often has great lapses of memory at his advanced age, was quoted as saying, “At this point, why don’t we just hand them the keys to the Treasury and tell them to turn off the lights when they are done?” There can only be one of three possible scenarios to justify this latest award. 1) Pentagon contractors are all so equally inept that giving the contract to either Moe, Larry or Curly will likely produce the same inadequate results, or 2) Halliburton’s previous association with Vice President Dick Cheney is still paying huge dividends, or 3) the people who are in charge of awarding the contracts have either been drugged or are somehow making a tidy nest egg off the deal. What ever happened to the quality of work and morals on which America built our worldwide reputation? Is it now so insignificant that you can lie, cheat and demonstrate world-class incompetence and be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams? The entire Pentagon relationship with its contractors is disgusting and turning uglier by the day.
04/20/03	U. S. Army	U. S. Army Builds Fantasyland We have Disney World, Six Flags, Universal Studios and Congress, where you can escape reality and dwell in Never-Never Land for a day to forget your troubles. Take the kids out for an enjoyable day to a New York Giants football game and spend the equivalent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Romania so you can forget about your problems, your job, your annoying neighbor and your overdue property tax bill. Now the U. S. Army can help, too. The Army is in the throes of building a $200 million museum on the grounds of Fort Belvoir, Virginia to help you pass the time. It’s not as if there might be any more pressing needs like the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, and what about those wipes for the troops in the field? The pathetic excuse for this latest boondoggle is that the museum will offer Americans an understanding of what the life of the soldier is all about. The propaganda spews out that “everyone can identify with the trials and tribulations of the young men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to do a job that most of us don’t want to do ourselves.” As a U. S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War, I really hate it when military bureaucrats flaunt patriotism to justify the expenditure of another exorbitant amount of money. The proposed design envisions exhibit space for 515,000 art and historical artifacts, and all of the other accoutrements like restaurants and gift shops. The primary objective of this state-of-the-art facility is to show simulated battles and use 4-D (dimensional) simulators available in advanced amusement and theme parks. Yep, you guessed it. Universal Studios is a paid consultant. Want to bet it overruns the projected budget? Here’s the clincher. The Army stated that the museum is NOT designed to encourage recruitment. What? I would have thought that would have been one of its’ primary goals considering the problems the military has in their recruitment drives now that we are fighting multiple wars. I have my routine alternate suggestions on how to use that expenditure. For one, we could give all of our active duty troops each a $100 bonus check. Better yet, to accomplish the education of the public, I’ll make a 30-minute video of the proud history of the Army and mail it to the 100 million households in the country for about the same cost.
08/06/04	Congress	$500 Baby Giveaway Representative Harold Ford (Tennessee Republican) and Senators John Corzine (New Jersey Democrat) and Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania Republican) are among our clueless elected officials who are pushing a new bill in Congress in 2004 under the American Savings for Personal Investment, Retirement and Education (ASPIRE) Act to create a $500 savings account for each child born in the United States after December 31, 2005. In addition, the Federal government would put an additional $500 into accounts for children born to families with incomes below the Federal poverty line. According to Kansas State researchers, who should know better, the idea may work. Why do I have a problem with this plan? Here’s just another example of one of thousands of government giveaway programs that march us onto the road to socialism and eventual bankruptcy, for one. Let’s look a little deeper. How much will this plan cost, how will it be administered, and will it really benefit the people? According to the World Factbook, in 2004 there were approximately 4,200,000 babies born in the United States. For a rough estimate, let’s assume 25% of those babies are born to families below the poverty line. That means the direct cost to the taxpayers is approximately $3 billion per year. But let us not forget about how many thousands of new Federal employees will be needed to manage this effort to add to the bloated bureaucracy? This is not a simple and straightforward task. That’ll probably add an additional $1/2 billion per year in labor costs assuming 2,500 new employees plus new computer systems, office space, etc., must be allocated to manage the effort. I can just picture the problems with people trying to get their paws on an extra $500 with phony birth certificates. How will the bureaucrats verify that a request for the monies is valid? Can you just imagine the headaches this will cause in paper work for the people below the poverty line who must fill out garbled “governmentese” forms to request the extra $500? Who are these people? They are generally indigent, poorly educated souls who often cannot read or write. According to the plan, the money can be withdrawn once the child turns 18 and could be applied to education, home ownership or retirement. This gem of an idea will be a nightmare for government employees to verify how the money will be used. Can you just picture the difficulties people will encounter with the mindless bureaucracy trying to get their money with this complex idea? Assuming beyond belief that all will go well, in actuality, how much will the $500 buy towards a child’s college education? At today’s rates, $500 saved today will yield about $1,200 in 18 years, not discounting inflation which will cut that in half to about $600 in real dollars. According to the U. S. Committee on Education and the Workforce, the average cost of tuition and fees at a private college or university is over $18,000. So with the $600, your child may expect the benefit of ten days of education. This is another classic idea that looks good on paper, but will quickly become a gigantic boondoggle benefiting few of the people it intends to help, and of course waste another $3-4 billion. This “ain’t” chicken feed, folks. All of these expenditures add up to an awful lot of money.
09/08/04	NASA	Genesis Space Capsule In 2004, the Genesis Space Capsule, which had orbited the sun for more than three years in an attempt to gather clues to the origin of the solar system, crashed to Earth after its parachute failed to deploy. This $260 million project was designed to collect space particles on a series of very sensitive disks, which by the way many people doubted would work at all. Here’s the nail in the coffin for this outrageous project. They could not have the capsule accomplish a conventional parachute landing, as the fragile disks would be damaged beyond repair due to the force of the impact upon landing. So what did the geniuses at NASA decide? They opted to have some Hollywood stunt men fly helicopters to snatch the capsule out of the air with hooks assuring a soft recovery. The pilots had participated in dozens of practice runs but the spacecraft was tumbling to earth instead of the smooth descent if the parachute had opened as planned. They were unable to retrieve the capsule resulting in a smorgasbord of metal buried in the ground. NASA has stated that they were able to recover some material from the now obliterated disks, but scientists had planned to study the material for 5 years. Most likely, they now have about a week’s work. Instead of using hooks to snag the capsule, the American public would have been better off if the stunt men had used butterfly nets to snag the NASA managers.
10/14/04	Defense Department	Custer’s Last Stand Two managers, who worked for Custer Battles, another contractor which provides services in Iraq, wrote memos exposing fraudulent billing practices, including charges for nonexistent services or services provided at grossly inflated prices. On top of that, former employees of the company are suing the company for charging the Iraqi Coalition Authority $157,000 for a $95,000 helicopter landing pad. Even better then that, they repainted a few forklifts, which had been abandoned by Iraqi Airlines, and then charged the authority thousands of dollars a month to lease those same forklifts. But the Pentagon has shown it has some backbone and is withholding $10 million in payments. They actually have barred the company from future contracts. I hope we can say with confidence that this is Custer’s Last Stand.
10/19/04	Defense Department	Boeing Strikes Again As a part of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) awarded a contract in 2003 to Boeing Corp. to install 7,000 explosive detection devices at 429 commercial airports in a 7-month time frame around the country. The original contract was for $508 million but TSA made 54 changes (probably relatively minor at that) to the contract that raised the final price to $1.2 billion with 18 months to accomplish the work – par for the course in government work. Remember my previous references about how contractors milk those changes. The Homeland Inspector General investigated the Boeing charges on the contract and found that Boeing had billed $82 million as project manager for actual costs of $39 million. Of course, Boeing responded with the standard canned line that Boeing did a job that people said could not be done. Was he referring to the simple installation of a black box at over 400 airports for over a billion bucks? The Homeland Inspector General was also critical of TSA’s expenses, including one lavish affair at a posh Washington, D.C hotel in November 2003 to celebrate its 2-year anniversary that cost the taxpayers $461,745, including $85,000 for a party planner. It obviously was much more elaborate than your typical Tupperware party.
10/24/04	Defense Department	The B-2 Bomber – The Ultimate Boondoggle Once again the government lets defense contractors dictate the price of weapons systems at any cost to the taxpayer. The relatively new B-2 Bomber has a price tag of about $2 billion per copy. Original estimates projected a cost of $270 million per plane. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, “the plane is currently worth five times its weight in gold.” Are we crazy to let this ridiculous pricing happen without screaming and shouting? Naturally, the head of the U.S. Air Force responded with the typical quote to justify outlandish expenditures, “Its worth every penny if we save one American life.” Saving American lives is not the issue – this is typical military subterfuge - the issue is why do we need to waste incredible sums of money on very questionable, or in some cases, very badly conceived and wasteful projects. Oh yes, we were force fed the propaganda about its infinitesimally small radar signature due to its revolutionary shape, which of course is really just an advancement on the “Flying Wing” invented by Northrup Corporation in the 1950’s. The reason for the B-2 bomber was to avoid the radar systems so we could bomb the hell out of our archenemy, the Soviet Union, which no longer exists. Now I guess we can use these planes to bomb the border with Mexico to stifle illegal immigration. After spending gazillions of dollars to develop this state-of-the-art aircraft, the designers have the gall to tell us that because of the very expensive materials used to deflect the enemy’s radar, the plane must be housed in climate-controlled hangars and have become a maintenance nightmare. This pathetic solution would only be permitted in defense work. In private industry, the manager would soon be sweeping floors if he had the audacity to suggest that design even in jest. On top of that, rumors were flying that the B-2 melted in water. The Air Force actually flew a busload of newsmen to its base in Missouri so these people could watch Air Force personnel wash the planes. Under actual battle conditions, of course, the enemy would never realize that simply bombing the aircraft hangars immobilizes the entire fleet. It becomes painfully obvious that’s why the Air Force stationed the B-2 in Missouri, the geographical heartland of the country. I can just see it now - all of the air conditioning technicians will need secret clearances just to adjust the thermostat in the hangar. To make a reasonable comparison, one B-2 bomber costs the same as a sparkling new aircraft carrier, a small city on water, over 3 football fields in length, 13 stories high, and home to 5,000 men and women.
12/14/04	Defense Department	The C-17 – Another Bomber Fiasco The C-17 AirLifter is the latest addition to the U. S. Air Forces global airlift capability. The C-17 was preceded by the C5A, one of the most scandalous programs in government procurement history. But I won’t delve into that program, as it would take another book to explain that ultimate mismanagement. The C-17 is a four-engine cargo jet that can land on short landing strips in remote parts of the world and drop airborne troops. Since the day the contract was originally awarded to McDonnell-Douglas, it was plagued by technical ineptness and cost overruns. In 1994, the Pentagon put McDonnell-Douglas on probation due to flaws in the design and postponed the program. In fact, McDonnell-Douglas performed so badly (that’s saying something for a defense contractor) that they were taken over by Boeing. The C-17 program has so many perverted twists that it’s virtually impossible to list them all in this limited space. In many ways, it almost makes the B-2 Bomber look like the picture of management perfection. One item stands out like a sore thumb. The former top Air Force acquisition official, Darleen Druyun, who is often referred to as the “Godmother of the C-17,” accepted an executive position with Boeing after she was instrumental in redirecting the Pentagon’s acquisition of the C-17 aircraft. It should be mentioned that Boeing hired two of her relatives during the negotiation period. She was convicted in April 2004 of a Federal conspiracy charge when she told Boeing that their prime competitor, Airbus, underbid them by billions of dollars for the refueling tanker lease-purchaser agreement, offering the company an opportunity to resubmit their bid. The Pentagon subsequently investigated over 400 contracts she was involved in, and found 8 contracts as suspicious with a value of over $3 billion. Four of those 8 contracts are with Boeing. The Inspector General is supposedly investigating those contracts now. On February 19, 2005, former Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael M. Sears was sentenced to four months in prison for illegally offering a choice job to Druyun while she was negotiating a multi-million contract with the company. If you thought there isn’t some grand collusion between the government and its contractors, according to the Project On Government Oversight, from 1999-2002, there have been 36 instances of misconduct or alleged misconduct by Boeing resulting in approximately $358 million in fines or penalties, restitution, and settlements. How do they afford these huge fines? Excessive profit, my friends, simply excessive profit. Here are some of the more pertinent facts about the C-17 program: · The General Accounting Office (GAO) says that the Air Force has enough C-17s to thwart the Air Forces’ effort to keep adding these “Spruce Gooses” to the defense appropriations bill. · An illegal proposal has been kicking around that puts the government in the business pf subsidizing a commercial version of the plane that Boeing can then sell to private air haul companies. The theory being that this “sharing arrangement” will reduce the purchase price of future acquisitions. And if you believe that costs will be lowered, I have a bridge I want to sell you. As a part of this deal, Boeing wants an exclusion from certain laws that requires them to provide financial data related to the program. Excuse me, can I hear that one again? · Russia’s equivalent to the C-17, the An-124, can carry 85 percent more payload than the C-17X. · The major advantage of this aircraft over military versions of the Boeing 747 or other competitors is that the plane can land and takeoff on a 3,000 runway. Excuse me - that’s 3,000 feet on a dry runway. It’s 6,300 feet when it rains which kind of negates the very purpose. Here we are talking about the rain again. You might think that these are the same people who designed the B-2 Bomber, or maybe it’s just a plaque that affects all defense contractors. · In 2003, the Air Force restricted one-third of the fleet to only fly within the continental United States due to continual technical problems.
12/22/04	Defense Department	The F/A-22 Fighter – the Raptor Another overly hyped program, that has been under development since the cold war with Russia, is the F/A-22 Raptor jet fighter. Par for the course, the Raptor costs five times what the F-15 costs, the plane it is designed to replace at an astronomical cost of $258 million per plane (over a quarter billion dollars per plane – what lunacy!). Even the recent versions of the Russian MIG fighter, which few countries possess, is the only plane that can stand up to the F-15, the supposed antiquated fighter. And of course, the original estimates were that the F/A-22 would cost about $70 million per copy, even at that number an outrageous amount of money. Republicans in Congress tried to kill the program in 1999, to no avail. No country has an air force even vaguely approaching the power of the U. S. Air Force. The Air Force’s command of the skies is unchallenged. Just like the B-2 Bomber, the Raptor is designed to avoid enemy radar and to shoot down Russian fighters. The plane has the ability to not only drop smart bombs but it also can capture enemy intelligence as it flies at well over 1,000 miles per hour. I wonder if it performs well in the rain? The F/A-22 project was conceived as a “cost plus” contract, which roughly translated means “milk the taxpayers,” because Joe and Mary Taxpayer pay for all cost overruns. Why is this contract still roaring ahead full bore? That’s because the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, managed to find 1,000 different contractors to provide parts in 43 different states to share in the kill. The Congressmen and Congresswomen who approve a contract of this magnitude are all too eager to claim they were responsible for bringing the work to their district. The plan is to procure 277 planes at a total cost of $71.8 billion. Twenty years ago, the Air Force planned to build 760 Raptors at a cost of $35 million per plane. Ten years ago, the proposal changed to 438, then 339 and eventually to the 277 planes at $258 million each today. One of the reasons cited for the huge increase in cost is because the plane’s avionics, designed to sight an enemy aircraft far beyond the pilot’s field of vision, “did not work as planned and it took us a while to figure out,” according to Lockheed-Martin. For the costs of the program to escalate so phenomenally, Lockheed-Martin must have 10,000 people working 24 hours a day to figure out that little problem. In March 2004, the Government Accountability Office stated that flight tests indicated that the Raptor was not meeting its requirements for a reliable aircraft.
12/27/04	Defense Department	The Bradley Death Trap Many of us have probably watched the made-for-TV movie, “The Pentagon Wars,” in which the costs (over $14 billion) of developing the Bradley Fighting Vehicle for the U. S. Army skyrocketed totally out of control. Air Force Lt. Col. John Burton was assigned to evaluate the usefulness of the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, an Army troop carrier/scout vehicle that was in reality a deathtrap for its crew. Burton kept trying to prove whether it was an effective weapon and safe for its crew, but he was constantly harassed by his temporary commanding officer, an Army General, so this individual could get the Bradley into production and then into the field after years of foot dragging by all involved. Through chicanery and backdoor politics, the Colonel was finally able to demonstrate the problems with the design, to no avail. When the Israeli Army purchased the vehicle, they made all of the changes recommended by the Colonel. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incidence. In blunt terms, there is no accountability for taxpayer’s money – there is only accountability through the political chain of command. To spend $14 billion to continuously STUDY one weapons system is outrageous. On top of that, the vehicle has the complexity of a can opener. With that huge expenditure of money, they should have had thousands of the vehicles in the field plus they should have found the cure for cancer. Do you think this stupidity would have been permitted in the private (commercial) sector? More heads would have rolled then in the French Revolution.
01/23/05	NASA	Mars Spirit Rover In 2004, the Mars Spirit Rover landed on the planet, moved off its landing pad, began transmitting data to the earth, and then went silent. Another software problem was found to be the culprit. During the flight to Mars, NASA decided to upload a spanking new operating system (just like in a Personal Computer) to fix vulnerable shortcomings in the original operating system. But they made a primitive error that left some of the old programming code still active. Once NASA engineers realized the problem, they worked frantically to revive the dormant spacecraft until finally they were able to make the probe operational. Why was the spacecraft launched if it was known that there were major problems with the software?” Is it possible that the political chain of command would not tolerate another delay?
01/24/05	FBI	FBI Accountability After spending $170 million on computer software that would agents in the field access to information on suspected terrorists, the FBI admitted that the system is a failure. They may even have to start over with a spanking new design. Giving the FBI the benefit of the doubt, this is not a rare occurrence in the field of software development. Ford Motor Company and McDonald’s have incurred greater losses on massive projects as well. According to various studies in the year 1996, only 16% of projects were completed on time, and nearly a third were cancelled outright.. However, by 2003, 34% of projects were completed on time, so private industry has significantly improved their productivity. The irony of this failure is that a casino in Las Vegas developed NORA (Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness) that likely does all of the tasks desired by the FBI plus much more at a fraction of the cost. The obvious lesson is that the FBI should turn to the private sector to develop their systems. Now the truth can be told that as early as two years ago, the FBI had identified over 400 deficiencies in the system (but never told the contractor likely in fear of the outrageous cost extras the contractor would bill the FBI), plus they proceeded with a $17 million testing program with full knowledge that the system was going to be abandoned. The VCF is a just one cog in the grandiose $581 million master plan called Trilogy that includes thousands of high-speed computers for agents. Hopefully, the same fate will not befall Trilogy.
01/25/05	Defense Department	8 of 25 Programs on GAO’s High-Risk List The government agency with the largest budget is also the agency with the most problems managing taxpayer monies. The General Accounting Office (GAO) publishes a “high risk” list of government programs that identify areas of concern such as financial and contract management, personnel security clearances, and other infrastructure. Out of 25 programs identified, DOD managed 8. Two primary areas of concern that were identified are inventory management and weapons acquisition. The report also noted that there were significant problems with the Department of Homeland Security’s sharing of information.
01/25/05	Pentagon	New Presidential Helicopters Congress has authorized $6.1 billion to be spent to build 23 helicopters for the President. That’s about $265 million FOR EACH HELICOPTER. An international team headed by Lockheed Martin will spearhead the international effort comprised of Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter, and Agusta Westland, a British-Italian consortium. They beat out Sikorsky Aircraft of Connecticut, which had built the helicopters since the Eisenhower administration. Of interest, Bell Helicopter, the winner, is based in Texas. The Pentagon stated that the new helicopters are a result of new security requirements post – 9/11. Supposedly, the existing helicopters could not carry the load of new security and communications equipment deemed necessary. Many critics of the deal have stated that the primary reason the deal went to the international team was to reward the British and Italians for their support in the Iraq war at the expense of an American company, Sikorsky. With the cost of each helicopter an outrageous $265 million, this is more likely a form of foreign aid.
01/31/05	Defense Department	Iraqi Reconstruction Loses Track of $9 Billion The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction stated that “due to severe inefficiencies and poor management,” the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq has lost track of $8.8 billion in monies that were destined to for salaries, operating and capital expenses, and reconstruction projects. In one instance, CAP staff identified one ministry where 8,206 guards were on the payroll, only 602 guards could be validated.
02/15/05	NASA	NASA Administrator Accused of Waste Outgoing NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe is being investigated for potential misuse of government airplanes and expensive getaways while heading the space agency.
02/15/05	Pentagon	Rarely Do Systems Work Do you remember that during the first Gulf War, the outlandish claims about the kill ratio of the Patriot Missile System, when the generals were claiming that it had nearly a 100% kill ratio? After the war, it was proven that the system was a dismal failure. How can this be? As another example, take the Antimissile System, which has been under development while a number of administrations have changed hands. According to the systems developer, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the system may be capable of hitting targets up to 80% of the time. The system is designed to send interceptors into space to KO enemy warheads. It’s just another drop in the proverbial bucket, but the government has spent over $130 billion on this latest venture into the Twilight Zone. Flight tests, to determine if the thing actually works, have been delayed several times. It doesn’t take a brain trust to know with each passing day more and more is being spent with each delay because the government pays for these delays – not the contractor. These tests started in 1999 (5 years ago) with the accustomed failures that led to months of delay until the failure point could be determined. Five hits were recorded in these tests, but under very “controlled conditions.” As a final blow, the Operational Test and Evaluation Office has had prolonged arguments with the developer, MDA, over the likely effectiveness of the missile system. I’ll bet the kill rate will be great as long as it doesn’t rain. The most ironic part of this total incompetence is the fact that I have often heard company management officials use the empty line, “If you want it to work the first time, it’s going to cost a lot of money.” Since systems rarely work the first time out of the barn, then obviously we, the taxpayers, are wasting our money. I wonder, “Can we ask for a refund?” The latest news is that during the period from December 2004 to February 2005, the Antimissile System failed miserably in its most current tests at a whopping $85 million for each test. The reasons for the failures are always given as some infinitely small glitch, as if we are supposed to believe that it’s a 10-minute operation to fix the problem.
02/24/05	Homeland Security	Hundreds of Projects Without Merit An audit released last week revealed hundreds of small grants awarded to projects without merit by the organization’s staff. One port that receives less than 20 ships per year received funding for security lighting. Another received grants to buy encrypted radios that were incompatible with federal and state radio systems already in use. The larger ports of Los Angles, Long Beach, New York received grants but so did St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, and Martha’s Vineyard. It’s obvious that Homeland Security either has too much money or is wasting it in useless gestures.
03/14/05	Congress	Pork In Every Budget According to the Citizens Against Government Waste (www.cagw.com), our elected representatives, who are supposed to be fiscally responsible, added 9,362 projects in the 13 appropriations bills of 2003 at a cost of $22.5 billion. Out of the 9,362 projects that can hardly be classified as “essential” to the American people, we’ll briefly review a few examples in each category of Congress’ spending that ignores the burden of the American people. Agriculture: $44,239,000 for projects in the state of Iowa including: · $33,000,000 for the National Animal Disease Center · $700,000 for the Midwest Poultry Consortium · $280,000 for the Iowa Vitality Center. Commerce, Justice and Judiciary: $76,570,000 for projects in South Carolina for Senate Commerce Appropriations Chairman Ernest Hollings, including: · $1,500,000 for shrimper assistance · $1,000,000 for oyster recovery · $500,000 for seafood marketing. District of Columbia: $19,000,000 for projects including: · $250,000 for the Washington Opera Education and Community Program · $250,000 for Values First to implement a values infusion program · $100,000 for Project Reality for the Game Plan abstinence program. Energy and Water: $218,053,000 for projects in South Carolina for Senate Commerce Appropriations Chairman Ernest Hollings (yes, that’s the same guy we mentioned in the Commerce category), including: · $216,000,000 for cleanup of the Savannah River site · $396,000 for Town Creek · $257,000 for the Folly River (aptly named no doubt). Foreign Operations: $25,000,000 for the International Fund for Ireland in support of the Anglo-Irish accord. The key verbiage within this bill states “those projects that hold the greatest potential for job creation and equal opportunity for the Irish people.” Do we not have enough problems holding onto our jobs in this country with outsourcing without spending $25 million on a foreign country to take our jobs? The other bills in this category ranged from $500,000 to $4,000,000. Interior: $38,250,000 for projects in Alaska for Senator Ted Stevens including: · $750,000 for sea otter research · $350,000 for backcountry hut repairs · $250,000 for the Iditarod National Historic Trail · $150,000 for the Alaska Whaling Commission. Labor, Health, Human Services and Education: $83,329,000 added for 239 projects alone in the state of Pennsylvania to satisfy the political cronies of Senator Arlen Specter and his fellow Republican and Democratic state office holders. · $36,101,000 for projects in Iowa for Senator Tom Harkins and House appropriator Tom Latham including: · $2,000,000 for the Iowa Communications Network statewide fiber optics demonstration · $250,000 for Family Communications Inc. · $300,000 for Iowa State University for the Universal Kitchen Design Project. Legislature Branch: Members of Congress have taken steps to improve security after 9/11, but many of the items approved in these bills have nothing to do with security: · $5,065,000 for the Capital building · $1,750,000 for Senate office buildings (nothing to do with security) · $120,000 for the Botanic Garden (nothing to do with security)..
03/15/05	Defense Department	Army Proposes Spending $100 Billion on Future Combat System The Army has unveiled its Future Combat System, of which Boeing has already received a $21 billion contract, to modernize land and air vehicles with a state-of-the-art system of wireless computers. The Boeing portion of the contract was awarded under “Other Provisioning Authority” rather than the normal procurement authority, which was designed for much smaller contracts to circumvent some of the auditing rules and other restrictions to attract commercial equipment makers without much of the “red tape.” Senator John McCain is leading the congressional investigation of Pentagon procurement practices. The concept behind the Future Combat System is to set up a vast network of computers to help soldiers make quicker, better battlefield decisions. Skeptics claim that the project is “unbelievably complex” involving 30 millions lines of computer code, and to further complicate matters, the Army last year added numerous additional classes of weapons system including armed unmanned robotic vehicles to the communication link. Army officials said Saturday that the first phase of the program, called Future Combat Systems, could run to $145 billion. Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman, said the "technological bridge to the future" would equip 15 brigades of roughly 3,000 soldiers, or about one-third of the force the Army plans to field, over a 20-year span. David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the United States, said in an interview that the Pentagon's future arsenal was unaffordable and Congress needed "to make some choices now." DOES ANYONE WANT TO BET IT WON’T WORK?
03/31/05	U. S. Army	“Stryker” Troop Transport Following in Footsteps of Bradley Death Trap The U. S. Army spent $11 billion developing the new Stryker troop transport vehicle. 311 of the vehicles are in use in Iraq. The Army Chief of Staff cannot commend the performance of the vehicle enough, but a December 2004 report lists a catalogue of complaints including design flaws, inoperable gear and maintenance problems in addition to unexpected risks from rocket-propelled grenades. Commander’s displays work so poorly that their use has been discontinued. Typically, the military responds with the classic line that they need time to get the bugs out, but the reality is after spending $11 billion none of these problems should exist.
04/01/05	Congress	Mid-Year Budget Pork State Budget Alabama $4 million for the International Fertilizer Development Center; $35,000 for the Sports Hall of Fame. Alaska $443,000 to develop salmon-fortified baby food; $1.5 million for the Anchorage Museum-Transit Intermodal Depot. California $150,000 for the Girl Scouts Golden Valley Council bridge project. Florida $1 million for the Palm Coast Trail System. Kansas $100,000 for a municipal swimming pool. Kentucky $2.3 million for an animal waste management research laboratory. Hawaii $4 million for mitigation of congestion in Kapolei City. Illinois $1.4 million for a sound barrier on Interstate 55. Maine $300,000 for the Great Falls parking garage. Massachusetts $1.2 million for Cape Cod bike repair. Mississippi $750,000 for the Mississippi Museum of Natural History. Missouri $1.5 million for the Rep. Richard Gephardt archive at the Missouri Historical Society. Montana $1.5 million for a “fuels-in-school” biomass project. North Carolina $1 million for the Garden Parkway. Ohio $750,000 for a sewer construction project; $350,000 for a music education project at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; $200,000 for the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum. Oregon $6.28 million to Oregon State University for wood utilization research; $628,000 for a barley gene mapping project. Pennsylvania $250,000 to promote tourism in the Allegheny National Forest area. Tennessee $2 million for the Fiery Gizzard Trail. Vermont $500,000 for the Amherst County River Walk Trail; $200,000 for a Vermont Civil War Monument in Virginia. Washington $1 million for the Enumclaw Welcome Center; $1 million for the Norwegian American Foundation. Wisconsin $3.2 million for the Chequamego-Nicolet National Forest
04/21/05	Congress	2006 Budget Pork According to the Citizens Against Government Waste (www.cagw.com), a nonpartisan organization devoted to tracking government waste; pork barrel spending reached a new high in the 2005 fiscal budget. Pork barrel spending was $27.3 billion, up 19% from last year’s total of $22.9 billion. A few of the essential items were curriculum development to study mariachi music, over $6 million for wood utilization research and $1.7 million for the International Fertilizer Development Association, as if Congress doesn’t spread enough fertilizer by themselves. Defenders of this practice point out that it’s a drop in the bucket when compared to the $2.53 trillion budget and $427 billion deficit. However, when you take into account a few representative items such as out-of-control defense spending whereby it costs $258 million for each new F/A-22 fighter (about the same cost as one new Airbus A380 plane that seats 555 to 800 people) and the fact that the Defense Department cannot account for over $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) in military hardware it has lost or misplaced, it continually adds more ammunition to the total waste picture. As the late Senator Everett Dirksen if Illinois once said, “A billion here, a billion there; pretty soon it adds up to real money.”
04/21/05	Information Technology Projects	GAO Critical of 621 Information Technology Projects Congress has previously authorized $22 billion in Information Technology (IT) projects that the General Accounting Office (GAO) has flagged 621 projects as deficient, about one-half of the total authorized projects. The GAO placed these projects on a special “management watch list” identifying weaknesses in performance, management and security. The irony of this action is that the OMB never actually created a comprehensive list indicating that they are likely as inefficient as the projects they criticize.
04/23/05	Congress	Congressional Junket Kings According to PoliticalMoneyLine.com, which tracks the trail of money in politics, the number of trips taken by our elected officials, paid for special-interest lobbies, is staggering. The kingpin is James SensenBrenner (Republican - Wisconsin), who must have a wonderful attendance record in Congress for he managed to take $168,000 in trips. A close second is Representative Maurice Hinchey (Democrat – Ulster County, New York), who has traveled to Prague, Rome, Moscow, Shanghai and Morocco, banging out a $161,393 tab. Since 2000, his trips ate up 140 days, much more than the 102-day session in the current year. Representative Gregory Meeks (Democrat – Queens, New York) must have been jealous of the luxurious lifestyle of his New York compatriot, for he and his wife managed trips to Malaysia, London, Ghana, Jamaica, Barbados and St. Lucia, no doubt to observe the dire poverty in these countries, which just happen to be topnotch tourist attractions. Ironically, Tom Delay (Republican – Texas), who has come under so much heat, is a piker in comparison, ranking only 28^th on the travel circuit.
05/05/05	Homeland Security	$4.5 Billion wasted on Screening Devices After spending $4.5 billion to purchase screening devices to monitor the nation’s airports, borders, airports, air and mail, the federal government is moving to replace or revise much of the antiterrorism equipment. Why? Because it is ineffective, unreliable or too expensive to operate. Much of the equipment has never worked. Radiation monitors cannot differentiate between radiation emitted by a nuclear bomb and the radiation given off from cat litter. In another brilliant example, passenger-screening equipment at airports has been no help in assisting baggage screeners detect whether someone is carrying a bomb or weapon onto a plane. So how does the government plan on resolving the problem? Well naturally, by spending billions more to buy all new equipment.
05/19/05	Iraq Reconstruction Projects	Spending Iraqi Money Like Water Just prior to the transfer of power from the Americans to the Iraqis last June, American officials rushed to sign contracts to dispense over $85 million in 1,000 new contracts regardless of the fact that reconstruction projects were hopelessly mired in delays and financial controls at the Iraqi Communications Ministry were nonexistent. There can only be two reasons for this rush to glory. One is that the money was sitting in the cash register so lets spend it since it’s only taxpayer money, or the old evil of graft was playing a prominent role. As a footnote, government auditors have stated that several U. S. officials, who are unsure whether over 20 billion dollars dispatched to Iraqi ministries ever reached their intended destinations, are under investigation for embezzlement.
05/22/05	Homeland Security	Post-9/11 Security Leads to Huge Waste According to the Washington Post, the federal government spent billions of dollars in a haphazard manner to protect Americans after 9/11. In February, the Office of Management and Budget found that only four of the 33 homeland security programs it examined were effective. As evidence of classic out-of-control government spending, the contract to hire airport screeners grew from $104 million to $741 million in less than a year, and there has been no improvement in the ability to detect weapons. Homeland Security is spending $10 billion to screen foreign visitors adding new technology on top of antiquated computer systems placing the project at great risk. One official said he wasn’t sure how his agency, a division of Homeland Security, had spent $700 million, more than one-third of his budget. But the fundamental issue is why is the government spending one red cent on immigration control when Genghis Khan and his Mongolian hordes could pore through the border with Mexico at ease?
05/23/05	Defense Department	Pentagon Missing $1 Trillion in Inventory The Department of Defense, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn't account for more than a trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000) in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes. The Pentagon's unenviable reputation for waste will top the congressional agenda, when the House and Senate are expected to begin floor debate on a Bush administration proposal to make sweeping changes in how the Pentagon spends money, manages contracts and treats civilian employees. A study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent. A GAO report found Defense inventory systems so lax that the U. S. Army lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.
05/23/05	States of Texas and New York	Sex Offenders Get Viagra According to FoxNews.com, for the last 5 years, 198 sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid for by Medicaid. New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi has requested the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services to "take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers." New York auditors are now reviewing whether Medicare is reimbursing payments for other sexual-dysfunction drugs for convicted sex offenders. After that news hit the street, the Texas Attorney General investigated and found that Medicaid was paying for Viagra and other sexual-enhancing drugs for over 200 registered sex offenders as well. Obviously, this problem is nationwide.
06/23/05	U. S. Air Force	Air Force Tried to Throw Boeing $30 Billion Bone The Air Force had been crying crocodile tears for three years to get replacement aircraft for its aging fleet of KC-135 refueling tankers. They have ardently been promoting the idea of converting 100 Boeing 767 commercial airplanes into tankers, a plane that is not well suited for the task. The truth has finally emerged that in reality it was a dirty little ploy to put wheelbarrows of dollars in Boeing’s pockets. Analyzing various e-mails between high-ranking Pentagon officials, it became apparent that the deal was nothing more than a financial bailout for Boeing. These facts are documented in a 256-page report written by the Pentagon’s Inspector General, in which they chronicle the incestuous relationship between defense contractors and the U.S. Air Force. The former top Air Force acquisition official, Darleen Druyun, who is often referred to as the “Godmother of the C-17,” accepted an executive position with Boeing after she was instrumental in redirecting the Pentagon’s acquisition of the C-17 aircraft through Boeing. It should be mentioned that Boeing hired two of her relatives during the negotiation period. She was convicted in April 2004 of a Federal conspiracy charge when she told Boeing that their prime competitor, Airbus, underbid them by billions of dollars for the refueling tanker lease-purchaser agreement, offering the company an opportunity to resubmit their bid. If you thought there isn’t some grand collusion between the government and its contractors, according to the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), from 1999-2002 there have been 36 instances of misconduct or alleged misconduct by Boeing alone resulting in approximately $358 million in fines or penalties, restitution, and settlements, and Boeing is only one of thousands of culprits. Now there are a few deep dark secrets about the story that have failed to make the mainstream press. For one, a few years ago the General Accounting Office (GAO) recommended as an alternative that the existing fleet of KC-135 tanker aircraft could be upgraded, modernized and repairs accomplished for about $3.2 billion, a savings of about $26 billion. So why was that suggestion ignored? Because the military always wants shiny new toys at any cost, for after all the money isn’t coming out of their pocket. The military uses the tried and true, “We can’t defend the country without it” argument to get their way. As Air Force General Flyright WingedFeet said, “What does the GAO know? They don’t fly airplanes.” But when General WingedFeet was questioned on the capabilities of the new tanker fleet at a cost of about $300 million per plane, he was asked, “Will the new tankers have radar guided missiles or sophisticated electronics to detect enemy troops and what is the express purpose of the new tankers?” The good general replied, “Well no, their only purpose if to refuel attack aircraft.” He was then asked, “But isn’t that the purpose of the existing fleet of KC-135 tankers, too?” He responded, “Yeah, but the toilet seats are only $35 apiece.” America needs a strong military to defend the country, but at a responsible cost. The taxpayers deserve cost-efficient procurement of military hardware, but it rarely happens because it appears only the GAO (and not Congress) is making feeble attempts to control the purse strings. Let’s put the $26 billion in perspective. If the military followed through on the suggestion to simply modernize the KC-135 tanker fleet, the money saved could be given as bonuses to the approximately 2,000,000 active duty and reserve personnel who daily put their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. As mind-boggling as it may seem, each individual would receive a one-time bonus of about $13,000. Considering the fact that a private with 2 years of service makes $14,000 per year and a sergeant makes $20,000 per year, a bonus of this magnitude would be very welcome news indeed. If we eliminate just one of these ill-conceived boondoggles each year, we could substantially increase the salaries of our warriors, especially in light of the recruitment problems being experienced by both the Army and Marines. And if “peaceniks” are worried about paying soldiers livable wages, how about instead we gave every taxpaying citizen a rebate? The $26 billion split equally between the 100 million taxpayers would mean each taxpayer would see a check for $260 in their mailbox -- not a miniscule amount.
06/24/05	Border Patrol/ General Services Administration	Mexican/Canadian Border Camera Systems Typical Government Failure According to the Washington Post, members of Congress yesterday denounced a $239 million camera system installed on the Mexican and Canadian borders as a scandal and an embarrassment, citing defective equipment, rampant overcharging by contractors and a failure by the U.S. Border Patrol and other government officials to properly oversee it. Representative Mike Roger (R- Alabama) said, “What we have here, plain and simple, is a case of gross mismanagement of a multimillion-dollar contract. Worst of all, it's seriously weakened our border security." The Border Patrol and General Services Administration (GSA), overseers of the project, paid scant attention to the installation of the ISIS cameras, which were installed on 50 to 80-foot poles over a period of 7 years before work was finally halted. The cameras break down frequently and in hot weather many cameras swivel uncontrollably. Some pieces of equipment, which were either defective or never installed, were found askew in the Arizona desert. The critical part of this boondoggle is here again we have an apparent situation of a major “sole source” contract being awarded by GSA that is against federal regulations. But the real irony is GSA had no incentives to limit costs because their rewards grew as the contract grew. The possibility exists that criminal or administrative charges may arise from the ongoing investigation.
09/01/05	U. S. Army	More Fallout From Halliburton Disgrace In last month’s newsletter we reported that the Army had awarded Halliburton $4.97 billion in additional work in Iraq as a “no bid” contract on top of the questionable $9.1 billion they have billed to-date. We also reported the unimportant fact that Bunny Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers top-contracting official, recently blew the whistle on Halliburton when she reported to Congress, “I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my career.” So how does the Army respond to this whistle blower? The Army demoted her from the top echelon Senior Executive Service and pushed her down to the relatively unimportant ranks of the civil works division. Bunny Greenhouse’s lawyer called the action an “obvious reprisal” for the strong objections she raised against the Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root. He was also quoted as saying, “She is being demoted because of her strict adherence to procurement requirements and the Army's preference to sidestep them when it suits their needs."
09/01/05	Congress	New Transportation Bill Feeds Overweight “Porkers” The new $286.5 billion transportation bill funding 6,371 projects has many “pork” items in addition to the two new $220 million bridges to “nowhere” in Alaska (see above). According to the Washington Post, projects that are identified as absolutely unnecessary “pork” include the following: · $2.3 million for the beautification of the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California · $6 million for graffiti elimination in New York · $4 million on the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan · $2.4 million on a Red River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Louisiana · $1.2 million to install lighting and steps and to equip an interpretative facility at the Blue Ridge Music Center · $207 million for the Prairie Parkway sought by House Speaker Dennis J. Hassert (Republican, Illinois). It made little difference that the Illinois Dept. of Transportation is two years into a five-year study to determine the merits of such a parkway. In 2003, President Bush declared he was at war against congressional pork. He cited the case of the wind-powered ice sled for the sheriff of Ashland County, Wisconsin secured by Representative David R. Obey (Democrat, Wisconsin). Senator John McCain (Republican, Arizona) said he estimated that $24 billion of the funds directed to “special projects” was “egregious.” Taxpayer groups have stated that nine percent of the funding should be eliminated and that President Bush should veto the bill. They noted that in 1987 President Reagan, perhaps the last fiscally responsible president, vetoed a transportation bill in 1987 because it contained 152 such special requests.
09/01/05	FAA	Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Finally Pulling in Horns Because of a few whistle blowers within the FAA, the agency is performing a top-to-bottom review of their relationship with hundreds of contractors who receive $1.3 billion in contracts annually. According to the Washington Post, a new contracting officer, who goes strictly by the book, raised issues when a contractor, Crown Consulting, Inc. called the officer and demanded more money for one of its 58 contracts with a total value of $158 million. The chief executive, Afzal I. Khan, simply stated that his company had run out of money on the contract and needed more. When the contracting officer pressed him for a reason for the cost overrun to justify more money, the chief executive was shocked and refused to cooperate. Obviously, up until that point, a phone call was all that was needed with a simple statement “that we need more money.” When the contracting officer did a little digging into that $16 million contract, she found numerous abuses including an unauthorized trip to Las Vegas, a lease on a Porsche, and the fact that Crown Consulting had hired the wife of a top FAA official who stayed on board after the contract ended. Crown Consulting was also responsible for developing a computer system that failed every test and was never used. The FAA has ordered that new management procedures will be put in place to prevent future contractor abuses. Even assuming that these new procedures will have a positive benefit, how many million of taxpayer dollars have been wasted over these years?
09/13/05	Congress	Federal Credit Card Limit Raised to $250,000 Using the disaster spurned by hurricane Katrina as the catalyst to waste more money, the federal government has raised the limit on thousands of credit cards from $15,000 to $250,000 per purchase. This little tidbit was quietly slipped into the $51.8 billion emergency appropriation for recovery from hurricane Katrina. The real stupidity of this process is the government refers to these transactions as “micro purchases,” which permits government agencies to designate any employee, including unfortunately administrative support staff, to carry a government credit card. In 2000, there were over 700,000 employees authorized to carry these cards (when the limit was $25,000), but because of congressional wailing, the number was reduced to 300,000 in 2004. The office of Management and Budget has assured Congress that agencies would use the cards responsibly. Whoops! We’re back to believing in the Easter Bunny again. In 2004, with a limit of $2,500 the government’s 26 million purchase transactions amounted to over $16 billion. Will the vast majority of the money be used solely for expenditures related to ONLY hurricane Katrina? We can all sleep comfortably knowing that many government agencies fail their annual audits. The Defense Department, one of the most flagrant dispensers of taxpayer money, hasn’t passed an audit of their books for seven years. Let us all hope that at least one levee will be repaired with the $51.8 billion.
10/01/05	NASA	NASA Proposes Spending $104 Billion to Go Back to Moon – NASA unveiled a plan to the White House to send people and cargo to the moon by 2020 at a cost of $104 billion. The Apathetic Voter asks the question, “Why?” Yes, why would anyone in their right mind want to waste another $104 billion sending astronauts back to that forlorn and dead cheese ball? With the huge costs of the Iraq war, the rebuilding of New Orleans infrastructure, the well documented waste within the Defense Department, the trillions handed out in “entitlements” to undeserving citizens, and of course the billions wasted on “pork” by our irresponsible congressional representatives, the plan to go back to the moon stands out like a beacon of stupidity. However, sending unmanned spacecraft to dive into asteroids so we can understand how to divert or destroy these massive potential killers is worth every penny. We would have had a much more diminutive presence in space it not for Sputnik in 1957. When the Russians launched the first satellite nearly 50 years ago, the American public was stunned. How could the primitive Russians beat us to the punch? So how did we respond? President John F. Kennedy mandated that we would land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Yes, we achieved that goal in 1969 for strictly political gain but in reality it provided little real purpose for mankind. There is no question that we as a people need to investigate our universe but at what cost when we have such enormous problems on our own planet. Let us not forget that when NASA received the go ahead to create the Space Station in 1984, NASA said it would cost $8 billion. Well here we are in 2005, and the space station is incomplete after we’ve already spent $100 billion. Considering NASA’s track record, the new moon shot won’t cost $104 billion; it will likely be $250 billion with numerous failures along the way. The NASA hype experts claim going back to the moon is simply a stepping-stone on our way to a manned mission to another dead planet, Mars. It’s frightening to think of the costs of that exploration, most likely a trillion dollars or more, and then what’s next? The next potentially inhabitable planet that may contain other life forms is hundreds if not thousands of light years away. Even if we could find a way to travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles or 299,792,458 meters per second), astronauts would not live long enough to survey a new planet. So what’s the purpose – it’s just another waste of tax dollars – let’s use a logical building block approach to space - the money will be better spent building a ring of satellites comprised of lasers and missiles aimed into space to protect us from earth-shattering asteroids, and then proceed from there once NASA hopefully gets its act together.
10/01/05	Congress	Federal Credit Card Limit Raised to $250,000 Using the disaster spurned by hurricane Katrina as the catalyst to waste more money, the federal government has raised the limit on thousands of federal credit cards from $15,000 to $250,000 per purchase. This little tidbit was quietly slipped into the $51.8 billion emergency appropriation for recovery from hurricane Katrina. The outrageousness of this process is the government refers to these transactions as “micro purchases” (only in government), which permits government agencies to designate any employee, including unfortunately administrative support staff, to carry a government credit card. In 2000, there were over 700,000 employees authorized to carry these cards (when the limit was $25,000), but because of congressional wailing, the number of cardholders was reduced to 300,000 and the limit reduced to $2,500 in 2004. The office of Management and Budget assured Congress that agencies would use the cards responsibly. Whoops! We’re back to believing in the Easter Bunny again. In 2004, with the limit of $2,500, the government’s 26 million purchase transactions amounted to over $16 billion. The question must be asked: “Will the vast majority of the money be used solely for expenditures related to ONLY hurricane Katrina?” And since the credit limit has been increased one hundred fold, should we expect expenditures of $1.6 trillion? We can all sleep comfortably knowing that many government agencies fail their annual audits. The Defense Department, one of the most flagrant dispensers of taxpayer money, hasn’t passed an audit of their books for seven years. Let us all hope that at least one levee will be repaired with the $51.8 billion.
10/01/05	Congress	Federal Government May Shell Out $200 Billion for Katrina Rebuilding In the aftermath of the hurricane Katrina disaster, Congress authorized $51.8 billion to start the rebuilding process that is predicted to cost in excess of $200 billion. I’m sure we all want to see a spanking new city rise from the devastation. One representative, Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, West Virginia) had this to say, “We don't want to turn rebuilding the Big Easy into the Big Dig,” referring to the unbelievable waste of taxpayer dollars to construct a vehicle tunnel under Boston. She also stated, “Rebuilding after Katrina is going to require efficiency, which is not something synonymous with the federal government." More importantly, and of vital interest to taxpayers, former representative Pat Toomey (Republican, Pennsylvania) said, “We've had great disasters, and the federal government didn't always come in and rebuild these cities. We shouldn't assume the only way to do this is through Uncle Sam." At least one politician is thinking with a clear head. Let’s examine what the pretense of “small government” supposedly advocated by President Bush has wrought on the people since he was elected in 2000. In 2001, the federal government recorded a $128 billion surplus. Because of tax cuts (which have been proven to boost the economy), the 2001 recession, and the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the treasury posted a $412 billion deficit last year with a predicted $331 billion deficit for this year (before the costs of hurricane Katrina are factored in). According to David Boaz, executive director of the Cato Institute, “Among advocates of limited government, there is despair. This is the biggest-spending president since Lyndon Johnson. And if he spends the kind of money that's being talked about here, I don't know if there will ever have been a president who increased spending as fast as this one did.” Rarely mentioned is the fact that with the onset of World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt slashed non-defense spending by over 20% between 1942 and 1944. Among the programs that were eliminated entirely were FDR's own prized creations. By 1944, such stalwarts of the New Deal as the Civilian Conservation Corps, the National Youth Administration and the Work Projects Administration had been abolished. In 1939 those three programs had represented one-eighth of the federal budget. Roosevelt and the Congress of his day knew what to do in an emergency. Harry S. Truman acted with equal decisiveness after the Korean War began in 1950. In just one year, Truman and a Democratic Congress cut nonmilitary spending by 28%. But the attitude of the nation's political leaders changed with Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” in the 1960s when he told advisers he could deliver both "guns and butter," and proceeded to avoid any hard choices between his favored domestic programs and the Vietnam War. Between 1965 and 1975, the fighting in Vietnam led to a 57% hike in defense spending. During the same period of time, non-defense spending also surged, nearly tripling over the same period. President Bush has called for reductions in federal spending to offset the costs of rebuilding New Orleans and the surrounding communities. I’m sure we can all easily find billions and billions of dollars in horrendous waste such as bridges to nowhere, moon shots, boondoggle highway construction projects and bloated defense spending as a good starting point.
10/05/05	Defense Contractors	Defense Contractor CEOs Salaries Up 200% Since 9/11 According to FairEconomy.org, the ratio of average CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to worker pay (now $27,460) increased from a 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 ratio in 2004. If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour. The report found that CEOs are individually profiting from the Iraq War (read “War Profiteers”), with huge average raises at the biggest defense contractors. At the 34 publicly traded US corporations among the 2004 top 100 defense contractors with 10% or more of their revenues from defense contracts – companies such as United Technologies, Textron, and General Dynamics – average CEO pay increased 200% from 2001 to 2004, versus 7% for all CEOs. Since September 11, the ratio between median pay for defense CEOs and pay for military generals has nearly doubled to 23-to-1, up from 12-to-1 just three years earlier. The pay ratio between defense CEOs and army privates soared to 160-to-1, up from just 89-to-1 in 2001. Why is it that company’s Board of Directors are so eager to grant these outrageous salaries and benefits to these head honchos? It’s quite simple really. Most of these boards are comprised of CEOs from other companies, who easily recognize that continually raising the bar will automatically set a new threshold for highway robbery when they enter negotiations with their own Board of Directors. Entries in the CEO Hall of Shame included: Tax dodgers: 46 large companies paid no federal income tax in 2003, despite collectively earning $30 billion in profits. Some of the savings wound up in the pockets of their CEOs, who made $12.6 million in average pay in 2004. Book cookers: In the last ten years, CEOs of firms with shady accounting appeared 18 times on the top ten lists of highest paid executives. This includes leaders whose companies were either later found to have committed fraud or were forced to make material restatements of earnings to correct previous overstatements of profits.
10/05/05	FEMA	FEMA Throwing Money Around Without Proper Controls According to the New York Times, 80 percent of the $1.5 billion in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were awarded without bidding or with limited competition. One Florida company, with ties to Mississippi’s Republican governor, received $568 million for debris removal. Already, questions have been raised about the political connections of two major contractors - the Shaw Group and Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton – yes, the infamous Halliburton of Dick Cheney infamy, which has demonstrated unparalleled incompetence and outright thievery in Iraq. Now we all recognize that the cleanup activity can’t wait for the rusty wheels of bureaucracy to turn at a snail’s pace before some action is taken, but for some smaller companies, the recovery work will be an extraordinary test. For example, Aduddell Roofing and Sheet Metal, an Oklahoma City business run by a former steer wrestler, shares with a partner in a $60 million contract to install temporary roofing on houses in Mississippi. Aduddell's single biggest contract before this was for $5 million, company executives said. Richard L. Skinner, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, said 60 members of his staff were examining Hurricane Katrina contracts. He said, “When you do something like this, you do increase the vulnerability for fraud, plain waste, abuse and mismanagement. We are very apprehensive about what we are seeing."
10/05/05	Pentagon	Pentagon May Kill Boeing Contract According to the New York Times, after the government has literally wasted $10 billion in contracts with Boeing to develop the next generation of spy satellites, the Pentagon is considering canceling the contract because of cost overruns (how shocking) and delays in delivery. These satellites are a part of the highly classified program, Future Imagery Architecture, run by the super secret National Reconnaissance Office. It is thought that at least 5,000 people work on the various programs. The irony of this pending decision is that the Pentagon may simply give the work to another incompetent aerospace vendor, Lockheed Martin Corporation, which also has a very dubious track record of cost overruns and excesses in many of their own contracts. But who cares anyway, it’s only $10 billion of the taxpayer’s money that was wasted. Perhaps the Pentagon should investigate smaller more efficient startup companies for much of this work to eliminate the stranglehold these established defense giants have on the Pentagon.
11/01/05		Senators Make Astonishing Contributions U. S. Senators agreed to give up their annual raises saying they need to do their part to save the government money in light of the unanticipated huge expenses attributable to Hurricane Katrina ($50 billion or more). The annual raise or Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) is equal to 1.9 percent of each Senator’s salary. The 100 senators estimate they will save the government $2 million by rejecting the increase. Wow! What a munificent gesture! Now instead of only 100 senators in that august body, if the Senate was comprised of 11,000 senators, the savings would be $220 million, exactly equal to the cost of one of the Alaskan “bridges to nowhere” Republican Senator Ted Stevens slipped into the massive transportation bill. The true irony of this decision is that the House with its 435 members elected not to reject the raise, which means that the raise will be added to all congressional paychecks. Does NOT this feeble attempt by the senators to buy a few votes from the peasantry demonstrate how out of touch our royal office holders are with reality and the people they claim to represent? Why is this happening? As America prospers, we elect more and more disgustingly rich representatives to both state and federal offices simply because many of these people are using their own money (millions upon millions of dollars) to buy their seat by inundating the airwaves with their propaganda overwhelming their opponents. In New Jersey, two multi-millionaires are vying for the governor’s chair. It’s most likely a case of whichever one spends more money gets to run a multi-billion dollar state government. This is not the path our Founding Fathers envisioned for the country, and the situation is out of control in the country. Vote for anyone other than the machine candidates in the upcoming election.
11/01/05	Pentagon	Pentagon Gives OK To Troublesome Osprey Program A Pentagon panel recommended that full production of the historically troubled V-22 Osprey tilt-wing aircraft proceed full-bore. The Pentagon plans on buying 458 of the aircraft for the Marines, Air Force and Navy at an estimated cost of $110 million per aircraft. It doesn’t seem to matter that for the last five years, one disaster after another has occurred during the testing phase, as long as Boeing and Textron (Bell Aircraft) are given billions to produce the aircraft by its chief sponsor, Representative Curt Weldon (Republican), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, whose seventh district just happens to be the region where the fuselages are built for the aircraft. Let’s do a little math. $110 million times 458 aircraft = slightly more than $50 billion. The engineering of this aircraft has been so badly mishandled that the plane has been in testing for well over 20 years. 20 years? - What incompetence! In April 2000, twenty-three Marines were killed in Arizona, and in December 2000 four more Marines were killed testing the aircraft in North Carolina. Congressman Weldon actually said, “Today’s approval is monumental in that it is one of very few weapons systems to be brought back from near extinction. This is total vindication from all of the critics who had taken cheap shots at the V-22 project over the years.” I guess the death of twenty-seven Marines would only make “cheap shot” artists express dire concerns about the program. One defense analyst, Loren Thompson, had the gall to state, “What this means is that after 20 years of test and development, the V-22 is finally ready to go into high-rate production. Once it’s in a high rate of production, the price will come down and the markets for the plane will expand, because foreign buyers and domestic users will see the full potential of the aircraft.” I don’t know if Ms. Thompson is in a hallucinogenic trance, but 1) show me historical evidence of one, just one, defense program where the price of any weapons system has come down over time, and 2) foreign buyers are not as stupid as our defense flunkies. They will not consider buying this potential death trap for at least five years until it is proven error-free, an unlikely proposition considering Boeing ‘s track record. When the Israeli Army purchased the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (a really troubled weapons program) directly from the manufacturer, they demanded that all design changes recommended by Air Force Lt. Col. John Burton be incorporated into production, even though the versions produced for the U. S. Army did not include those changes. I believe one of those changes was providing adequate armor. Does that not ring a bell? We can all be thankful as we watch another $50 billion likely going down the ol’ rat hole.
12/01/05	Congress	Congress Throws Another Bone to Boeing Congress has authorized the purchase of an additional 45 Boeing C-17 GlobeMaster III aircraft to augment the current fleet of 145 aircraft, at a cost of $175 million per plane. According to the Los Angeles Times, a Pentagon study released last month concluded that a fleet of 180 C-17s was sufficient to support military operations; however, Air Force generals, who don’t sign checks in the same cautious manner as you and I, claim that at least 222 C-17s are needed to meet growing airlift requirements. Perhaps we should be thankful that Congress didn’t authorize 77 additional aircraft. Let’s see how much money we’re talking about in this purchase. 45 planes at $175 million means you can kiss off another $8 billion in taxpayer dollars. "I think this amendment comes at a critical time, expressing the desires of the Congress," said Sen. John Warner (Republican, Virginia), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who does not have a reputation as a penny pincher when it comes to taxpayer dollars. The amendment was authored by Senators Jim Talent (Republican, Missouri) and Joe Lieberman (Democrat, Connecticut). Purely coincidentally we’re sure, but both senators represent states where major C-17 parts are manufactured. Watchdog group Project on Government Oversight (POGO) decried the Senate amendment, calling it "just another gift" to a defense contractor. "Congress is looking out for the defense industry, but not the needs of our military," said Eric Miller, senior investigator for the group.
12/01/05	EPA	Environmental Protection Agency Keeps Us Safe From Chocolate Many people feel safe and secure knowing that government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies too numerous to list herein are the people’s watchdog against flagrant violations of environmental and business rules perpetrated by evil corporate America. On the opposite side of the coin, there are plenty of citizens who are aghast at the waste of taxpayer dollars and the power that many of these bloated agencies unleash on small businesses that are rarely able to defend themselves. According to the Star-Ledger, we can all rest comfortably knowing that the EPA has taken action against one of these small companies to suppress the mouthwatering smell of chocolate and cocoa butter wafting from the smokestacks of the 66-year old factory at Blommer Chocolate Co. of Chicago, Illinois. Yes, the EPA received a complaint after 66 years from one citizen out of four million citizens in the city of Chicago. The EPA has now mandated that pollution controls will henceforth be required to eliminate the smells from their cooking processes. Of course, government agencies could care less how much these controls will cost the company. Lets hope it’s not one of the hundreds of business that have been forced to close down because of often zany and dictatorial rulings from the minds of the dangerously misguided bureaucrats. According to Alan Hirsch, head of the Chicago-based Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, “Chocolate smells put people in a relaxed mood. It’s been shown bad odors increase aggression; pleasant ones make people more docile. So you could say the chocolate small provides a real service to the people of Chicago.” Will the elimination of these pleasant smells cause the people of Chicago to become more violent? Did the EPA consider the possibility that the homicide rate might increase because of their ruling? As some form of justification (or just plain stupidity) for demanding the pollution controls, the EPA stated that the plant’s emissions in high concentrations could harm children, the elderly and people with heart-and-lung diseases. The Apathetic Voter guesses that the elderly would need to climb and sit on the edge of the smokestack for 20 years before their health would be endangered. Is this not as asinine as conclusions reached by some esteemed medical researchers who have determined that certain foods cause cancer after daily feeding of 3 pounds of the suspect food to 2-pound rats for 10-years.
12/01/05	FEMA	FEMA Throwing Katrina Money Around Like Drunken Sailor According to the New York Times, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doling out money to both legitimate recipients and to undeserving communities as well. One community, Jackson, Mississippi, received $62 million in aid out of total Katrina budget of $62 billion, and the only Katrina damage that could be documented was some spoiled food in resident’s refrigerators. Residents used the money in a splurge buying jewelry, guns and electronics. In Iberia Parish, west of New Orleans, where perhaps three mobile homes were damaged, 404 families received checks for $2,000, or slightly less than $1 million. It must have been an early Christmas in the deep south provided by Uncle Sap. FEMA has stated that most claims were legitimate, but the United States Attorney’s office is already investigating over 1,000 reports of fraud. FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said, “Do you get assistance into the hands of those who desperately need it as quickly as possible, or do you slow it down to dot every I and cross every T? We chose to err on the side of the victim.” Very good point, but doesn’t FEMA have hundreds of inspectors? Did anyone even walk through the town of Jackson, Mississippi (or any other towns) to visually inspect damage before millions of dollars were doled out without any form of justification? Senator Susan M. Collins (Republican, Maine), who heads a committee which oversees FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, said, “It is frustrating to me that FEMA seems incapable of paying legitimate claims quickly and effectively and yet reimburses fraudulent claims without asking any questions.” This isn’t the first time FEMA has been severely criticized for haphazardly dispensing undeserving monies. After Hurricane Francis last year, FEMA distributed $31 million in the Miami-Dade area despite minimal damage. Anyone who has ever run a small business has to be critical of the way Congress allocates money for Katrina victims or just about any other government expense. How did Congress decide that $62 billion was the magic number to rebuild the deep south? If private business was handling this situation, they would have recommended that Congress authorize say $10 billion to handle emergency expenses for food and housing, and then carefully studied damage assessments before authorizing additional monies. But why bother? It’s only taxpayer money.
12/01/05	Inspector General	Special Inspector General Fights Corruption The United States has allocated $30 billion for reconstruction projects in Iraq, the largest U. S. aid project since the Marshall Plan initiated after World War II to rebuild Europe. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said, “Our job in simplest terms is to provide reporting on what the U. S. taxpayer is getting for their investment in the reconstruction of Iraq.” Even though Bowen has been viewed as a loyal Bush ally, he has been especially critical of the enormous waste and rampant corruption revealed in his 18 months of review of contracts. According to Fox News, in a January report, Bowen concluded that the American-run leadership in Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), headed by the now departed Paul Bremer, failed to track $9 billion during 2003-2004. Let’s make a wild assumption and guess that most of that $9 billion wound up in the pockets of corrupt Iraqi officials. If that is factual, then $.30 of every dollar that is meant for reconstruction is instead being used to purchase villas on the French Riviera or racking up interest in Swiss bank accounts.
01/01/06	U. S. Army	U. S Army Can’t Manage Basic Inventory It has been revealed that the U.S Army has lost track of over $68 million in parts and tools that were shipped to contractors for repairs in 2004. According to the Star-Ledger, the reason they lost track is because they don’t demand a receipt from these same contractors when the items are received. Each year the Army ships thousands of items, ranging from small tools to massive main turbines, to private contractors throughout the country for repairs, modifications or alterations. The General Accounting Office (GAO) also found that another $481.7 million (or 41 percent) in unclassified items shipped for repairs couldn’t be reconciled with shipping records. Discrepancies also were found in records for 37 percent, or about $8.1 million in shipments, of classified parts and tools. In prior audits, the GAO found a similar lack of control and accounting oversight with the Navy and Air Force parts and shipments. Can you imagine running a business without maintaining the most fundamental controls over an enormous inventory? Only in government!
01/01/06	NASA	The Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle has been an unmitigated disaster since its inception. Two shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, have blown up with the tragic loss of two crews of 14 highly trained people. Columbia accident investigators attributed the disaster to the NASA work environment and a lax safety culture, and they recommended 15 reforms that must be carried out before the shuttle can fly again. To-date, NASA claims to have implemented changes to satisfy 5 of those recommendations. I assume we should not hold our breath waiting for the rest of the changes. Keeping par with the defense industry, each shuttle costs about $2 billion. Is this a magic number the defense contractors use to price B-2 bombers, space shuttles and aircraft carriers? The space shuttle program, which began in 1972, was supposed to cost between $10 and $12 million for each shuttle launch, which somehow escalated to over $450 million. And the turnaround time between flights, which was supposed to be days, somehow became months, if launches were attempted at all. At least someone is solving the problem but not in government. In September 2004, a bunch of comparatively rank amateurs launched SpaceShipOne, a vehicle that can orbit the planet. Each launch is realistically predicted to cost between $25 and $30 million. At about the same time, the president’s space commission recommended that NASA get out of the business of hauling cargo into space and leave it to private enterprise. Within a few years no doubt, hopefully the same commission will recommend that private enterprise handle interplanetary exploration as well. Isn’t it ironic that we are totally reliant on the “dirt cheap” Russian Mir spacecraft to shuttle American astronauts back and forth to the Space Station until such time as NASA gets their act together?
01/01/06	NASA	Mars Climate Orbiter In 1999, as the Mars Climate Orbiter neared the red planet, after traveling 121 million miles for over 9 months, it received instructions from earth to fire its main engine to begin the process of orbiting around the planet. It executed the software command, fired its engines and fell into an orbit around the planet. But it never came around from the backside of the planet. $230 million was spent to build and launch the spacecraft that was designed to orbit the planet and collect data on the daily weather and atmospheric conditions, and then transmit that data to the Mars Polar Lander. I guess we should be overjoyed to know that the Mars Polar Lander wound up on the scrap heap of history, too. Why did this happen? NASA, after intensive investigation, concluded that a catastrophic error had occurred in the software that placed the spacecraft much too close to the surface of Mars. Instead of orbiting at 125 miles above the planet, the vehicle dropped down to 35 miles. Computer simulations verified that the spacecraft likely wound up as fireball lighting up the Martian atmosphere, but we couldn’t see it – it was on the other side of the planet. The $230 million investment was now a junkyard sale all over the Martian landscape.
01/01/06	New Orleans Levees	The Sad But True Story About the New Orleans Levees In an in-depth article in the Los Angeles Times, the infighting and political shenanigans behind the failure of the levees protecting New Orleans was exposed in all of its infamous decadence. The number of unethical and immoral players in this human comedy is staggering. The summary of the story that follows confirms in nauseating detail the tales of corruption and incompetence that have plagued Louisiana and New Orleans governments, in cahoots with the federal government, most likely since the issue of levees was first considered. The fiasco started back in 1985 when the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (the corps), which is responsible for inland waterways, and New Orleans levee officials joined forces to protect the city of New Orleans from long-feared hurricanes. They couldn’t agree on the best course of action and it was the beginning of a dysfunctional relationship that only worsened over time. The corps wanted to install gates in front of the city’s three main levees, while the city’s flood protection agency wanted to build higher floodwalls for miles along the canals. Money was the most pressing problem. The Corps wanted a “least cost” solution during the Reagan administration so it recommended a $20 million option – the floodgates, while levee officials opted for the $60 million option of reinforcing the floodwalls, especially since the Corps would absorb the majority of the costs. The corps solution of butterfly-valve gates was untested and came under great scrutiny and criticism when reviewed by levee officials. One of the fears was that the gates would jam with debris and canals would back up, submerging the city. In response to raising the levees, the corps demanded that the houses along the 17^th Street and London Avenue levees might need to be razed, but the corps refused to absorb the costs to do so. The levee board was also afraid to take on neighborhood groups, which was a pivotal error in retrospect. In 1985, the political lines shot straight to the governor’s office, who chose the majority of commissioners on local levee boards. Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards selected Emile Schneider as levee board president. The board issued $50 million in bonds, and then began to hire private engineers based on a mix of their qualifications and political allegiances. The three engineering consultants who were selected by the Orleans board contributed to the political campaigns of the officials who held power over the board. One of the three consultants, Walter Baudier, said, “Everybody gave to everybody. That neutralized any advantage.” These same contractors also donated lavishly to Francis C. Heitmeier, a powerful state legislator who has long wielded influence over Orleans levee district affairs. Arguing Until the Cows Come Home As the two entities argued, New Orleans politicians managed to push the Water Resources Development Act of 1990 through the House and the Senate, which forced the Army Corp to accept the higher floodwall concept. This political chicanery was a crucial victory for the Orleans district, the most powerful among the 18 Louisiana boards that supervise more than 340 miles of storm levees across the southern half of the state. The corps had to abandon its plan for the floodgates and shoulder 70% of the costs. Adding insult to injury, the Orleans board was able to hire its own politically connected consultants to design the strengthened levees. Over 15 years, the Corps spent $95 million to buttress the canal levees, but their shared supervision failed to recognize crucial weaknesses inside the floodwalls. Bruce Feingerts, a former aide to Senator Russell Long, was hired as a lobbyist to press for levee expansion. Louisiana senators managed to work in their own language for the Water Resources bill that was also passed in 1990. Feingerts said that the “military engineers were asleep at the wheel. If they had seen it coming, they would have blown a gasket.” The final bill passed with his language intact. Structural inspections were cursory and maintenance was minimal. Lines of authority were at best a crapshoot. The corps kept a tight leash on funding, while the Orleans board lavishly spent money on high-stakes investments such as casinos and marinas, many big losers. The levee board’s irrational authority to hire its own consultants allowed it to select firms that regularly gave campaign contributions to those very politicians with influence over levee business. Repeated failures by the Louisiana legislature to reign in the corrupt practices of the levee board let the Orleans district operate its own patronage system. Even former governor Charles E. Roemer III said, “The New Orleans board had the reputation as being one of the worst – by worst, I mean more political than professional.” Even before the Corps agreed to pay for raised levees, it insisted on gates at Orleans and at London Avenues. But the board, impatient with the Corps bureaucracy, hired a construction firm to drive sheet piles at 17^th Street. In recent years, Plaquemines Levee District President Benny Rouselle twice ordered crews to raise levees along a local highway despite the Corps orders to cease and desist. Rouselle said, “When you deal with the Corps, it takes years of study.” Fred H. Bayley III, the Corps director of engineering, warned that the work crews were not driving the steel foundations deep enough. It was one of many warnings about shallow sheets piled under the levee. Boh Brothers, a Louisiana construction firm, was one of three companies to drive sheet piles. But on any given day, their crews had to coordinate with state and city officials and inspectors for the levee board’s design consultants. Raymond Seed, a UC Berkeley engineering professor, part of a National Science Foundation inquiry, said his team has heard allegations that piles were deliberately shortchanged. Herbert J. Roussel, Jr., who testified for a construction firm that sued the Corps, stated, “The corps had an attitude problem. It was: We’re the Army Corps of Engineers. We know what we’re doing and you don’t.” Levee Board Complaints Levee board officials complained about excessive corps delays. Army engineers raised their own complaints. As sections of the floodwalls were finished piecemeal, the levee board’s emphasis turned to chores of grass cutting and maintenance. That left ample time to focus on board business that had absolutely nothing to do with levee construction. The levee board had become a recreation powerhouse. By the late 1980s, the board operated an airport, two marinas, and lakeshore rental properties. In 1992, tough talking lawyer Robert Harvey was installed as the Orleans district’s president. He won his post after contributing $5,000 to the 1991 campaign of Governor Edwards. Harvey said, “It’s a plum job. Your connection with the governor is close. You have 300 employees, lots of contacts.” While all of this political gamesmanship was going on, the newly raised floodwalls received scant attention. Neither the corps nor the Orleans board had a rigorous program for scanning for structural defects. The two agencies would join together twice a year for five-hour long inspections and then head out for extended lunches. Former Orleans commissioner Peggy Wilson said, “That was always on the agenda.” On one tour, only one other levee board official joined Wilson. When they actually got to the point of hurriedly inspecting the levees, Wilson said, “I kept asking them what I was supposed to look for, puddles of water?” Her concerns were dismissed with the reply of “Oh, don’t worry.” Eric Moskau, a commercial real estate agent, said, “I’d seen them driving out near the walls. I always wondered exactly what they did out there.” When Hurricane Katrina hit, floodwaters burst through the walls of the 17^th Street and London Avenue levees, where steel foundations gave way in porous soil. Water also flowed through a 200-foot gap in the Orleans Avenue levee, left unfinished due to Bush administration budget cuts. As the final acknowledgment of the precarious nature of the levees, Robert Harvey, who lived on 17^th Street, had bought himself an inflatable rubber boat, which ironically he used to rescue neighbors when the storm subsided. This month, the Corps announced plans to seal off the three broken canals with permanent barriers and relocate the numerous New Orleans pumping stations from inside the city to the shores of Lake Ponchartrain at a cost of $3.1 billion. So now taxpayers across the country will pay for the petty arguments, incompetence, corruption and criminal neglect that were the essence of this debacle. Eric Moskau’s final comment was most appropriate. He said, “The government was just like everybody who lived near the levee. They took those walls for granted.”
01/01/06	Federal Deficit	Federal Deficit Jumps $130 Billion in Two Months According to the Miami Herald, for the first two months of the 2006 budget year, the federal deficit totaled $130.3 billion, 13.1 percent higher than the imbalance last year for the same period. As Congress is working on a deficit reduction package, the House approved $95 billion in tax cuts over five years, while the Senate has approved a similar package totaling $60 billion. Tax cuts are good – they spur the economy. But the cuts most coincide with a reduction in spending to provide the taxpayers with any realistic relief. Even Alan Greenspan, President Bush’s economic whiz kid, echoed that sentiment by saying that Congress should not approve cuts in revenue unless it cuts spending by the same amount. On one hand, Medicaid, food stamps and education have been cut by $23.9 billion in the new budget. The Defense Department has been told to cut the budget by $32 billion over the next five years. This effort will be worthwhile if the cuts come from the bloated and very costly weapons systems, and not from essential items for troops in the field or monies to expand recruitment. According to the New York Times, the majority of the 41 percent increase in defense spending over the last five years has gone towards the hugely expensive air and sea combat systems when America’s toughest battles are being fought on land against terrorists and local insurrections. The Air Force and Navy spending plans are increasingly oriented towards potential confrontation with the Chinese, but as highly unlikely as a conflict is with that government, these two services are using that potential as justification for mind-boggling expenditures for new toys even though we hold an unprecedented command of the air and sea. At the same time, tax cuts for capital gains and stock dividends were extended for two years at a cost of roughly $20 billion. But some tax cuts are mandatory. The decision to prevent the Alternative Minimum Tax from slamming into 15 million households next year is a boon to lower income Americans, but it will reduce revenue by $31 billion. If the Apathetic Voter had an opportunity to review the budget, I could realize at least a 10 percent reduction across the board without raising a sweat solving the immediate problem and eventually cutting into the $8+ trillion federal deficit.
03/01/06	Congress	Just How Much Does the Federal Government Pay In Interest? Over the last few weeks, the government has touted the fact that they were able to cut $39 billion from the federal budget over the next 5 years in areas that are of very real concern to many Americans, areas that include student loans and Medicaid. Now if the $39 billion were simply “fat” within the budget, everyone would cheer. If the government really wanted to make a dent in the budget, they should examine the Republican’s passion for feeding the rich and politically connected and inefficient defense contractor’s caviar at every meal. But what impact does the $39 billion over 5 years (about $8 billion per year) have on the big picture? The government pays an astronomical amount of money just to service the federal debt. Just last year, the government spent $352,350,252,507.90 in interest on a total federal debt of $8.14 trillion. Yes, that’s $352 billion - granted a seemingly small amount when compared to the gargantuan federal budget of $2.7 trillion. Only two programs cost more, Medicare and Social Security. And Congress just authorized pushing the envelope to $9 trillion. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, To help fund that $352 billion I.O.U., the government will again sell 30-year bonds. By any measure, the interest on the debt is headed in the wrong direction. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released "The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2007 to 2016." That report predicts that interest payments on Treasury Debt Securities, or gross interest, will increase from $352 billion to $662 billion during that period. And where does this money go? Where do we send the check for our national interest payments? "When the federal government runs a deficit, the Treasury borrows money from the public by selling securities in the capital markets," the CBO says. "That debt is purchased by various buyers, including foreign investors, mutual funds, state and local governments, commercial banks, insurance companies and individuals. Of those groups, foreign investors (governments, businesses and individuals) currently own 45 percent of all federal debt issued to the public -- or nearly $2.1 trillion of the roughly $4.6 trillion that is now outstanding." The CBO says Japan, China and the United Kingdom have the biggest holdings of U.S. debt instruments. And, it's worth noting, that the United Kingdom is more of a broker than a purchaser. In all, the CBO says, "investors from other countries purchased about $235 billion in Treasury securities last year." We Americans are stingy when it comes to foreign aid. We don't invest a lot (in relative terms) to help poor nations climb out of poverty. The total spending on foreign aid is less than $20 billion (depending on how you count). Yet without debate, without fanfare, we willingly send $235 billion as a transfer payment -- to Japan, China and other cash-rich nations, businesses and individuals. The only way out of the looming disaster we're in is to be able to clear up the picture. We cannot do that without a wholesale reform of government accounting and by drastically cutting government services and spending. Has anyone heard of Sarbanes-Oxley regulations applied to private businesses? Apply it to the government. How about forcing political candidates to sign their political campaign promises. Any violation – no matter how minor – is punishable by death by stoning.
03/01/06	FEMA	FEMA Buys and Then Abandons 10,770 Trailers According to the Los Angeles Times, after the August 29 storm that left thousands homeless on the Gulf Coast, government officials were crying for trailers to house the homeless. Someone decided to create a holding area for the trailers outside of the hurricane zone. FEMA spent $431 million for 10,770 trailers that sit at Hope Municipal Airport, a deserted military base. And after all of these months, victims can’t seem to get the trailers. FEMA claims it has been stymied by federal regulations, such as the little gem that forbids trailers to be positioned in flood plains, which rules out any area hit by Hurricane Katrina. Representative Mike Ross asked the question, “It cost $431 million and they’re all sitting there, 75% of them literally parked in a cow pasture. They are brand-new, all totally furnished, and yet people have been living in tents for five months in a row. It just makes you sick to your stomach.” But at least the people in Hope, Arkansas, are making a small fortune as new jobs have been created for security guards, maintenance workers, and others. The state piggy bank has benefited, too. Many truckers, who were hauling the trailers, got tickets ranging from $125 to $425 each for not carrying the right permits or getting stuck on the road after dark. Dennis Larson, whose company hauled nearly 400 trailers to Hope, said, “I have a dozen tickets sitting on my desk. The state of Arkansas set out to profit. It was by far the worst of all states that we went through … Missouri was the best. You talk to any trucker and mention Arkansas, they shudder.” FEMA officials, worried about the oncoming rainy season, have now contracted to lay down a 290-acre gravel bed at a cost of $6 million. So not only has the federal government wasted $431 million on the trailers, add to that the hauling costs, the new jobs guarding and maintaining the trailers, plus the new gravel bed. It must easily exceed $1/2 billion.
03/01/06	Congress	Federal Government Spent $1.6 Billion on Public Opinion The Bush administration spent at least $1.6 billion on public relations and advertising campaigns over 30 months, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office. The report, which was requested by congressional Democrats, shows that government agencies are relying on outside consultants to pitch their messages to the public, whether its to bolster public support for the war in Iraq, deter purchases of Canadian drugs, or recruiting for the armed forces. The most prominent example was demonstrated a year ago when it was revealed that the Bush administration had illegally engaged in “covert propaganda” when it paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to praise the No Child Left Behind Act. Government auditors studied the spending by seven different Cabinet-level departments for 30 months covering all of fiscal 2003 and 2004 and the first half of 2005. The auditors found spending on 343 media contracts, such as paying contractors to make sure agency Web sites were user friendly. The following are prime examples of nonsensical government spending: - The Army spent $2.5 million to develop a plan to present its “strategic perspective in the global war on terrorism” and to respond to issues raised by taxpayers and various players over the conflict. - The Department of Health and Human Services paid $29,900 to an advertising agency to convince Americans that buying prescription drugs from Canada and other countries is risky. - The Air Force spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotional materials including monies for “prize giveaways,” cruises to the Mediterranean, portable coolers, and other items, and $35,000 for a golf program that included golf tees and towels with logos.
03/01/06	Halliburton	Army to Pay Halliburton $250 Million in Disputed Costs Even though the documentation of Halliburton’s charges has been disputed over and over again since this incompetent and crooked company has been doing business with the government, the Army has decided to pay $250 million of disputed charges by the Army’s own auditors out of the total $2.41 billion in work on their “no bid” contract. The Army actually said that questionable business practices by Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown $ Root, had in some cases driven up the company’s costs. But in the “haste and peril of war,” it had largely done as well as could be expected. Even more unbelievable, the Army’s rationale for payment was justified by saying, “the contractor is not required to perform perfectly to be entitled to reimbursement.” I’m fed up listening to this largesse by the government! Over the last few years, auditors have found that fuel transportation costs were triple what others were charging to do the same job. Other audit anomalies included fuel deliveries, pipeline repairs, and other tasks that were unsupported by documentation. In total, the Army is withholding payment on 3.8 percent of the charges questioned by the Pentagon audit agency. Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat, California) said in a written statement about the Army’s decision, “Halliburton gouged the taxpayer, government auditors caught the company red-handed, yet the Pentagon ignored the auditors and paid Halliburton hundreds of millions of dollars and a huge bonus.” On a separate contract in Iraq for logistics support, more than $11 billion has been disbursed to Kellogg, Brown & Root. Since the auditor’s findings generally wind up in the wastebasket, we can all let our imagination’s run wild about the percent of the money that has been charged by these inept and corrupt contractors because of waste and corruption. But what’s the difference – it’s only taxpayer money.
04/01/06	Congress	Powerful Congressmen Wants to Build Railway to “Nowhere” Even with all the attention that has been focused on the enormous amount of “pork” doled out by powerful members of Congress, Senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran (Republicans, Mississippi) have the unmitigated gall to include $700 million to relocate a CSX rail line in coastal Mississippi in the $107 billion supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. The most outrageous part of this rip-off of the taxpayers is that the line was rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina with $250 million of Congress’ money. The Senators claim that this is not pork; the line must be rebuilt because of hurricanes. Now why didn’t they think of that when the line was rebuilt last winter? The safety issues with the line are no different from those in any hurricane-prone area of the country. The more likely explanation for the rebuilding is that once the line is moved and rebuilt, a road can be built directly on that same roadbed to serve the thriving casino and tourist strip industry (most likely by siphoning off part of the funds earmarked for the rail line relocation). If there is a grain of truth in the need to rebuild, then the state of Mississippi should foot the bill. Our representatives just don’t get the message that the people are fed up with their arrogant attitudes about disposing of huge sums of taxpayer money to their friends. We need to run all of them out of office, and the sooner the better.
04/01/06	Congress	Powerful Congressman Wants to Build Road to “Nowhere” Representative Charles Taylor (Democrat, North Carolina) wants to build a 30-mile road through a pristine forest, that apparently no one wants, at a cost of $604 million, up 40 percent from only a year ago. According to the New York Times, Mr. Taylor claims the road will stimulate the local economy around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The road was promised to the residents of Swain County in 1943 when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built a major dam and flooded out the local road. The road was never built due to environmental and budget considerations. But now that Congress spends money from the bottomless pit of taxpayer’s wallets, Mr. Taylor sees this as a vote-getting ploy. The road will require three bridges the length of the Brooklyn Bridge, would breach an unbroken tract of national forest, destroy wildlife habitat and poison hundreds of miles of streams. The cost of the road is three times the annual budget for roads for the entire parks system, which is already suffering from a huge backlog of road repair projects. The justification for the road, which is being fought by other members of Congress and the Swain County commissioners, is that the federal government owes the people for the displaced road destroyed in 1943. A settlement package of $52 million has been proposed and would be significantly cheaper than this massive road project, although not a penny should be spent to let the congressman buy votes. The Interior Department is not fighting this project simply because their funding comes under the auspices of Mr. Taylor, who runs the subcommittee that controls the Interior Department's budget.
04/01/06	Defense Department	New $338 Million Fighter Has Major Flaw The Apathetic Voter, a former defense contractor, constantly rails against the outrageous sums of money the corporate crooks known as defense contractors charge the government for weapons systems. During 2005, while Congress was debating funding for the F/A-22 Raptor fighter (which in reality is totally unnecessary), the Apathetic Voter wrote article after article attesting to this rip-off of the taxpayers. The arguments against this monstrosity are summarized below. This is just another boondoggle in a similar pattern to the Bradley Fighting vehicle and V-22 Osprey tilt-wing aircraft (sees story below) and most other major weapons systems. The defense contractors are billing the Air Force $338 million per plane (over a third of a billion dollars per plane – what lunacy!) Twenty years ago, the Air Force planned to build 760 Raptors at a cost of $35 million per plane. Then the first firm estimates were that the F/A-22 would cost about $70 million per copy, even at that number a princely amount of money. Ten years ago, the proposal changed to 438, then 339, then two years ago to 277 planes at $258 million each, and today, the plan is to purchase 179 planes at $338 million apiece. Along with the F/A-22, let’s hope that Congress eventually kills the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a plane designed to replace the F-16 fighter, still a damn good plane after 25 years. The latest numbers on this plane are to purchase 1,763 planes at a cost of $245 billion (more lunacy). The primary reason the costs increase beyond human recognitions is simply because the contracting officers have no idea how much a plane like this should cost (they’ve never built a plane), so they authorize wheelbarrows of money every time the contractor sneezes. And why shouldn’t they – its not their money! The F/A-22 project was conceived as a “cost plus” contract, which roughly translated means “milk the taxpayers,” because Joe and Mary Taxpayer pay for all cost overruns. Why is this plane actually in production today? That’s because the prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, managed to find 1,000 different contractors to provide parts in 43 different states to share in the kill, an administrator’s nightmare but politically advantageous. The Congressmen and Congresswomen who approve a contract of this magnitude are all too eager to claim they were responsible for bringing the work to their district. One of the reasons cited for the huge increase in costs is because the plane’s avionics, designed to sight an enemy aircraft far beyond the pilot’s field of vision, “did not work as planned and it took us a while to figure out,” according to Lockheed-Martin. For the costs of the program to escalate so phenomenally, Lockheed-Martin must have had 10,000 people working 24 hours a day to figure out that little problem. We must remember that during the development cycle, all of the drawings, jigs, fixtures, avionics, software and testing are paid by the government. Once this is complete, all the contractor has to do is buy the parts and assemble the airplane. They have to be grossly inefficient and virtual crooks if it costs $338 million to put each plane together. Now it has been revealed that the plane likely has a serious structural flaw that will require redesign or major modifications. For what purpose did we spend all that money? After 20 years, it should be perfect down to every nut and bolt. A few congressmen want to halt production until the problem is resolved. But guess who will wind up paying for the modifications, and it’s not the contractors? Oh yes, and by the way, Lockheed Martin discovered the problem ironically days after the plane was declared ready for combat, so obviously they could start production and rake in the really big bucks.
04/01/06	FBI	Auditors Question $17 Million in FBI Computer System The FBI awarded a $425 million contract for the Sentinel computer system to the same clowns who butchered the failed Trilogy computer system, another travesty on which we reported a few months ago. In the Trilogy project, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found $10 million in questionable costs and 1,205 pieces of missing computer equipment valued at $7.6 million. According to the Star-Ledger, the questionable costs include first class airfare for government contractors, excessive overtime and $5.5 million in unsubstantiated costs. Computer Sciences Corporation (SCS) was the prime contractor responsible to design and install a high-speed secure computer system with 30,000 desktop computers. CACI, a subcontractor to CSC, submitted an invoice for $456,211 to CSC for payment without sufficient justification, and CSC paid it regardless, for its only taxpayer money. One CSC employee had the unmitigated gall to write an e-mail that said, “It’s not what we asked for but at this point it doesn’t really matter. Approve it.” In another bill from CSC to the FBI for $1.95 million, all but $44,000 was listed as “other direct costs” with absolutely no justification provided. Auditors also tended to question one expense for $52,000 for 60,000 pens that were custom-made for FBI training sessions. FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said, “The lessons learned from the Trilogy program are guiding us, and the FBI continues to strengthen our internal controls.” I have news for the FBI. You will make the same mistakes if you deal with the same incompetent crooks.
04/01/06	Government Accountability Office	Katrina Contracts Wasted Billions According to the Government Accountability Office’s review of contracts awarded for disaster relief, the government wasted billions of dollars on unnecessary items and “no bid” contracts. According to the Associated Press, waste and mismanagement were widespread due to poor planning and miscommunication that led to authorization to spend money that was paid for work that was never used. The GAO reviewed over 700 contracts with a value of $500,000 or more and found that more than half were awarded without competition, often to politically connected firms such as Bechtel Corp, Ash-Britt, and yes you guessed it, the boys at our arch nemesis, Kellogg, Brown & Root, the incompetent and corrupt subsidiary of Halliburton. The GAO said, “the government’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita depended heavily on contractors to deliver ice, water and food supplies; patch rooftops, and provide housing to displace residents. FEMA did not adequately anticipate needs.” The largest criticism of FEMA was that the agency moved too slowly to assist hurricane victims. Representative Henry Waxman, (Democrat, California) said, “Previous reports of waste in the aftermath of Katrina have been bad, but this one is worse. The Bush Administration has learned nothing from its disastrous contract management in Iraq. The administration seems incapable of spending money in a way that actually meets the needs of Gulf Coast residents.” Of course, in another example of government incompetence, we find a Democrat criticizing a government agency under the auspices of the Republicans, granted an exceptionally incompetent agency, as if the Democrats could or would do anything to change the course of the onrushing government juggernaut, which they advocate with equal enthusiasm.
04/01/06	Defense Department	More Proof of the Military-Industrial Complex President Bush’s latest request for emergency appropriations for the continuing war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina topped $106.5 billion with $27.2 billion allocated for Hurricane Katrina. Congress showed their overt allegiance to the military-industrial complex when they cut money for troops’ equipment but added $230 million for the V-22 Osprey tilt-wing aircraft that has a development history even more bizarre than the development horrors of the infamous Bradley Fighting vehicle. The “sham” reasoning behind the $230 million allocation was the military needed to replace four “Huey” helicopters shot down in Iraq. To-date, the Pentagon has wasted $18 billion on the troubled aircraft, and the defense contractors are no closer to solving the problems than they were five years ago. So the potential of replacing the helicopters with a non-workable aircraft is just a pipe dream and simply more “pork” handed out to defense contractors. The Osprey, which has been under development by Bell Helicopter since the 1980s, has already cost a number of Marines their lives. In order to fund only the parts for the aircraft (which will lead to bigger and better things), the Senate Appropriations Committee cut out night vision goggles for troops, equipment for destroying mines and explosives, fire suppression systems, and new vehicles. Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense said, “They’ve hijacked the bill to spend money on their toys. You have the V-22, which isn’t even ready for fielding and it’s getting money in the supplemental bill.”
07/01/06	Department of Defense	CAGW Campaigns to Eliminate “Pork” – The Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) have joined with congressional reps to successfully campaign to eliminate a number of “pork” items in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (H.R. 5631). The outlandish “Pork” items included in this bill include: · $20,000,000 for the Leonard Wood Research Institute in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri · $2,500,000 for the Northwest Manufacturing Initiative · $1,000,000 for the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium in New London, Connecticut. CAGW President Tom Schatz said (in part), “Taxpayers, we have a problem, “When appropriators have free reign to earmark the federal budget, the result is corruption and waste.” “Porker” of the Month CAGW also named their “Porker of the Month,” Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat, West Virginia). Since 1991, West Virginia has received $2.95 billion in pork. The state has ranked in the top 4 in pork per capita every year since 2001. 33 projects in West Virginia have been named after the venerable senator, even though federal law prohibits just that. To name a few (no doubt “vital”) pork projects he has brought to his state: · $16.8 million for the Institute for Software Research (2002) · $3.6 million for the Appalachian Fruit Laboratory in Kearneysville (2005) · $3.5 million for the National Tracing Center in Martinsburg (2002) · $2.7 million for the Wood Education and Resource Center (2004) · $1.7 million to equip West Liberty State College residence halls with Internet access (2003) · $250,000 for the National Center for Cool and Coldwater Aquaculture (2000) · $160,000 for poultry litter composting (2004) $95,000 for the West Virginia State Museum for its Civil War regimental flag collection (2002).
07/01/06	Homeland Security	$34.3 Billion in Contracts Wasted or Abused – The House Committee on Government Reform sharply criticized the Department of Homeland Security for routinely using no-bid contracts that did not ensure the lowest cost and for failing to rigorously guarantee that work was done as promised. The report cited 32 contracts worth $34.3 billion as examples of waste, abuse and mismanagement. Seemingly following in the footsteps of the defense-contracting clique, costs spiraled beyond estimates, and the agency paid the bills without checking to see whether the work was actually done or whether systems performed as required. Representatives Henry Waxman (Democrat, California) and Tom Davis (Republican, Virginia), the odd couple who co-sponsored the report, said, “Our nation has pressing security needs, and if the money is well-spent, it would be a good investment. But the problem is, hundreds of millions of dollars are being squandered. The taxpayers are being taken to the cleaners, and our security is not being protected.” One of the contracts cited is the classic out-of-control contract awarded to Boeing in 2002 to install machines to screen luggage at 429 airports. The original contract was valued at $508 million, but it soon grew to $1.2 billion because of 54 contract changes. Even after all of this, the machines rarely worked. Investigators said it might cost $3-5 billion to replace all of the machines. When government is unable to comprehend the scope of a contract, they concoct a loosely worded “cost plus” contract which permits contractors to bill to their heart’s content, whereby they earn a profit on every dollar spent. The obvious conclusion is that the more the contractor spends, the more the profit. It doesn’t take a financial genius to quickly determine that there is no incentive for contractors to economize and every incentive for them to overcharge. And the problem will only get worse. The department spent $3.5 billion on these contracts in 2003 and $10 billion in 2005. At the same time, the percentage of no-bid contracts rose from 19 to 55 percent.
07/01/06	Homeland Security	Terrorists Next Target? Petting Zoos The Department of Homeland Security, which has demonstrated unparalled incompetence in handling Hurricane Katrina relief and contracts with defense contractors, have been tasked to protect us from terrorism, although they dole out taxpayer money to every burg, hamlet and Eskimo village purportedly to protect us from the ravages of terrorism. Terrorists would never be interested in 90 percent of the places they’ve identified to which they’ve handed out wheelbarrows of money, but it sure buys votes for their senators and representatives. Are they discretely looking for real targets or are they creating a shopping list of any city, attraction, public transit, or national monument that attracts more than 50 people a year just to cover their tails? According to Homeland Security, Washington state lists 65 national monuments and icons while Washington, D.C. lists just 37. One of the items on the Homeland list is Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo in Alabama. Another is the Mule Day Parade in Tennessee. How much money have they allotted for these representative institutions of evil corporate America instead of focusing on the logical and less politically desirable trouble spots, and thereby spending a lot less money?
07/01/06	Homeland Security	Homeland Security Buying Dog Booties and Beer-Making Equipment Having fun with government-issued credit cards, Homeland Security employees racked up hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in purchases of items necessary to thwart terrorism, like 2,000 dog booties, 54 iPods, 37 designer jackets and beer-making equipment. Government Accountability Office investigator Gregory D. Kutz told a hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, “Poor training, lax oversight and rampant confusion over what employees are allowed to buy with government-issued credit cards “allowed potentially fraudulent, improper, abusive, or questionable transactions to go undetected.” He estimated that 45 percent of department purchases with the credit cards - reviewed from June to November 2005 - were deemed improper. Investigators also noted that Customs and Border Protection wasted up to $464,586 by buying meals-ready-to-eat over the Internet instead of contracting through the Pentagon, as is standard procedure. And they found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency couldn’t locate 22 printers and two GPS units worth $170,000, as well as 12 of 20 boats the agency bought for $208,000. Kutz said about 9,000 Homeland Security employees carry credit cards for business-related expenses. The cards usually have a $2,500 spending limit, but that was raised to $250,000 for emergencies after Hurricane Katrina hit last Aug. 29. Sen. Norm Coleman (Republican, Minnesota) said he was outraged that Homeland Security does not already have department-wide spending standards in place. “Is it a sense of, ’Well, it’s not my money?” Coleman said. “We give cards to folks and ultimately the responsible party is not the cardholder. It’s the government. That’s who’s responsible.”
08/01/06	NASA	Lockheed Awarded $7.4 Billion to Build Next Spaceship At least we should give NASA a little credit. After wasting billions of dollars on their inept handling of American space missions, they turned over the task of building the replacement for the Space Shuttle, Orion, to a private company, Lockheed Martin. But here we go again. Was any consideration given to one of the smaller entrepreneurial firms that could simultaneously invigorate some life into the program and save the taxpayers billions upon billions of dollars? No, we are left with the few gargantuan aerospace defense contractors vying for a piece of the huge defense budget. Why wasn’t consideration given to Burt Rutan and his SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Anzari X prize for flight into suborbital space? The best part of the story is the entire effort cost less than $30 million, about what NASA spends on paper clips each year. The new plan calls for building a space capsule with an emergency escape tower similar to the Apollo capsule that ferried men to and from the moon. Orion, though, would be much larger than Apollo. The shuttle fleet is to be retired in 2010. Orion is to make its first human flight by 2014, but at Congress’s urging NASA hopes to fly at least a year earlier to minimize a gap in the nation’s ability to send people into space. But let us not forget that NASA awarded a contract in 1996 to build a space plane to replace the space shuttle. NASA spent $912 million and the X-33 craft never was built because of “technical problems,” but somehow ten years later Rutan was successful and only spent a miniscule $30 million. The Orion contract calls for Lockheed Martin to get $3.9 billion through 2013 for designing, developing, testing and evaluating the new craft and building two for initial flights into space. A second stage, from 2009 to 2019, provides $3.5 billion for building an unspecified number of manned ships to go to the space station and the moon, and some cargo-only versions for supplying the station. The contract also includes $750 million for engineering work to modify or improve the ships. But some experts say that these numbers are conservative and that NASA projects typically run 50 percent above initial estimates, in part because there is little incentive to stay within budget once a contract has been awarded. Based on past performance, it is a reasonable guess that the $7.4 billion in combined contracts will easily exceed $20 billion by 2019. The shuttle program is estimated to have cost around $10 billion since it began in the 1980’s. No price tag has been announced for the Bush administration’s plan for manned exploration of the moon and Mars, but estimates have run above $200 billion. Oh, oh! Watch out taxpayers. Here we go again with the open door policy for raiding Fort Knox. The critical question is why are we even considering spending $200 billion to go the moon and Mars? We discovered in 1969 that the moon is made of cheese. Perhaps if Mars is made of white wine, it will all make sense to the Apathetic Voter. We are probably hundreds of years away from realistic interstellar space travel. Even if scientists were able to create a vehicle that could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take 70 years to get to the next star system for possible investigation of other life forms. Oh sure, we all want progress, for after all without experimentation we would whither and die on the vine. But with all of the problems on earth, and the burden that is increasingly placed on taxpayers, wouldn’t it be reasonable to wait awhile until many of earth’s problems, especially with disease and famine, are solved first before we waste another gargantuan sum of money fiddling around on two dead pieces of rock?
08/01/06	Congress	Fewer Than 1 in 10 Congressmen Want to Cut Federal Spending According to the National Taxpayer’s Union (NTU), fewer than 1 in 10 Congressional members sponsored legislation last year whose overall effect would reduce federal spending – just one of many unique insights provided by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s (NTUF’s) latest BillTally report. “The federal deficit picture may be rapidly improving due to higher revenues, but Congress’s collective habit of writing and proposing costly legislation has only begun to show signs of receding,” said NTUF Senior Policy Analyst and BillTally director Demian Brady. Highlights of the BillTally report: · Last year House Members introduced 17 bills to raise spending for every bill to cut it; in the Senate, the ratio was 31 to 1. Incredibly, this represents an improvement in fiscal discipline from the last Congress (2003), when the House and Senate ratios were 23 to 1 and 32 to 1, respectively. · There are other signs of gradual moderation. A total of 49 Representatives and Senators sponsored bills whose cumulative effect would actually reduce federal outlays, many more than the 16 lawmakers who did so in 2003. Meanwhile, the number of Congress Members backing increases in federal spending of $100 billion or more has gone down, from over 150 in 2003 to 90 last year. · Nonetheless, these figures are a far cry from the 104th Congress (1995), when the increase-to-decrease ratios for bill introduction were far more balanced – 1.3 to 1 in the House and 1.7 to 1 in the Senate. In addition, 10 years ago House Republicans as well as Members of both parties in the Senate posted average agenda totals that would have driven down federal expenditures. · The typical House Republican proposed to boost the federal budget by a net of $11.6 billion, while the average for a Democrat was $547.4 billion (the highest BillTally has ever recorded for either Chamber). On the Senate side, the partisan gap was smaller – $11.4 billion per Republican and $52.1 billion per Democrat. If every one of the House’s spending bills introduced in 2005 – excluding overlapping proposals – became law, federal outlays would increase by $2.55 trillion, roughly doubling the current federal budget. In the Senate, the sum total adds up to $394.4 billion.
09/15/06	Defense Department	Halliburton Enjoys Super Bowl Party at Your Expense Halliburton executives ordered a big-screen TV and 10 large tubs of tacos, chicken wings and cheese sticks delivered to Iraq and then naturally billed it to the taxpayers, as if their huge billing rates didn’t easily afford this item as an internal expense. However, this latest offense is minor in comparison to the well documented double- and triple-billing for Internet usage and food and gym services for soldiers. All of this abuse was exposed by a lawsuit filed by a former employee for KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary that runs dining halls in Iraq. The former employee filed his lawsuit under the False Claims Act – designed to prevent war profiteering. But here’s the punch line – the Department of Justice decided not to join the lawsuit after conducting an investigation. Apparently, the only way monies will be recovered from crooked contractors is via lawsuits filed by honest former employees who desire to expose the waste and corruption. In June, a KBR subcontractor was indicted on kickback charges. We should all be impressed by how the government punished KBR. They withheld $55.1 million out of a total of $13.7 billion in payments – that’s .004 percent of the total billing.
09/15/06	Defense Department	Even Government Bureaucrats Complain About Government Bureaucrats At least one high level government bureaucrat has finally admitted to the ineptness, corruption and lethargy that exist in government. The Interior Department’s Inspector General, Earl E. Devaney, complained to the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy that the agency tolerates ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence. He stated, “Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior. I have observed one instance after another when the good work of my office has been disregarded by the department. Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials – taking the form of appearances of improprieties, favoritism and bias – have been routinely dismissed with a promise of ‘not to do it again.’” The blistering attack was part of Mr. Devaney’s report on the Interior Department’s “bureaucratic bungling” of oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990s, mistakes that are now costing the government tens of billions of dollars and have been covered up for the last six years. He focused on J. Steven Griles, a former lobbyist who served as deputy secretary at the Interior Department during President Bush’s first term. He resigned after numerous allegations were made against him, including that he favored policy decisions that benefited some of his former oil and gas industry clients. The Inspector General described Mr. Griles as a “train wreck waiting to happen.” The Interior Department’s office of ethics dismissed 23 of 25 charges against Mr. Griles and decided not to act on the other two allegations.
09/15/06	Congress	Government’s Accounting Abysmal at Best The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits the books of Uncle Sam, including its departments and agencies. But in its latest year-end media advisory, the GAO plainly states that: “For the ninth straight year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is unable to provide an opinion as to whether the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government are presented fairly, in all material respects, in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.” In other words, the same government that is aggressively pursuing corporations for bad accounting is guiltier of similar practices. In an earlier report to Congress, GAO Director and U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker bluntly explained it this way: “The current system of federal financial reporting provides an unrealistic and even misleading picture of the government’s overall performance and financial condition ... A key lesson from Enron, WorldCom and other business failures is that our free-market system depends on public confidence in the accuracy of ... financial information.” But, unfortunately, Washington has so far failed to learn that lesson. In several departments of the executive branch, especially Defense, balance sheets don’t balance and taxpayer money disappears. So beyond the deficit manipulations that we know about, there could be many others that are unknown, even to the federal auditors. One veteran economist, John Williams, is so thoroughly convinced that government manipulations are hoodwinking taxpayers and investors, he has devoted his current career to painstakingly documenting the shenanigans at Shadow Government Statistics (www.ShadowStats.com). Distortion # 1 - The True Unemployment Rate Is Over 12% Instead of measuring how many people are actually out of work, they figured it would be easier to simply keep track of how many people are applying for jobless benefits. Never mind the fact that the benefits run out after 26 weeks! Never mind the hundreds of thousands of “discouraged” workers who have stopped collecting benefits months ago! The government’s unemployment number also excludes millions of part-time workers who are seeking a full-time job but can’t find one. Distortion # 2 – Gigantic Deficits and Debts The official 2005 budget listed the U.S. federal deficit at $319 billion. But according to the GAO, if the government followed the same generally accepted accounting principles it demands of corporations, the real 2005 deficit would have been $760 billion — or more than DOUBLE the official number. At the end of the first quarter, the total federal debt, including government agencies and government-sponsored enterprises, stood at $10.2 trillion. But if you also include the estimated unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other programs, the total federal debt is at least $54 trillion. And that’s based on three separate studies — by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) and the Brookings Institute. And it’s not just the federal government we need worry about. Many states have a similar problem.
09/15/06	Army Corps of Engineers	Army Corps of Engineers Creates Fake Budget Entries The Army Corps of Engineers created fake entries in government ledgers to the tune of $362 million to “salt” away funds they may want to spend for reconstruction in Iraq. They actually labeled the entries “Dummy Vendor,” an accounting trick to preserve funds due to expire at the end of the year. This is standard operating procedure for government organizations. In the last month(s) at the end of a fiscal year, ALL government agencies will spend monies at breakneck speed so there isn’t a farthing left in their budget. The reason for this chicanery is quite simple. If they don’t spend all of the money authorized by Congress, they can fully expect their budget for the subsequent year will be reduced. Congress authorized $18 billion to build new schools, power stations and sewage treatment plans that must be spent by September 30^th. The internal conflict within Iraq plus shifting government priorities left the Corps with over $1 billion unspent. So that the money wasn’t lost, Corps officials created the bogus “Dummy Vendor” for 96 projects to absorb the $1 billion. This is where government versus private enterprise differs markedly. In private business, if a manager can demonstrate that he/she has met all goals and return money to the corporation, the manager will get a gold star. But it doesn’t work that way in government spending. Even if the often poorly defined goals are not met, the government manager can claim they did not have enough money to achieve that goal, so if there is unspent money, it defeats that excuse.
09/15/06	FEMA	Florida Newspaper Delves into FEMA Money Outlays The Florida Sun-Sentinel decided to examine how FEMA spent money in 20 recent disasters and found that mismanagement and waste abound. A brief synopsis of a sampling of the excesses follows (simply click on any item for the full story): Generator payouts top $332 million – A Hollywood surgeon got FEMA money for Hurricane Wilma for a generator. FEMA's waste continues as millions in extra payments given out for Katrina - With hundreds of thousands forced from homes battered by Hurricane Katrina, the federal government cut red tape to rush $2,000 checks and debit cards to help victims pay for clothes, food, transportation and a place to live. Residents received emergency Katrina money, sometimes for minor damage - When Hurricane Katrina knocked out power to Lakeshia Watson's public housing apartment, she opened a window. Chief coroner warns of more FEMA waste on funeral overpayments - Despite assurances from federal officials that they will change the way they award disaster funeral assistance, taxpayer money will likely still be wasted, Florida's chief medical examiner predicted Thursday. FEMA paid for at least 203 funerals not related to 2004 hurricanes - The federal government used hurricane aid money to pay funeral expenses for at least 203 Floridians whose deaths were not caused by last year's storms, the state's coroners have concluded. FEMA disaster aid operations tightened after Frances - Federal officials announced sweeping changes Friday in how they verify damages and award aid to disaster victims in response to a U.S. Senate investigation into widespread fraud and waste in Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Frances last year. FEMA inspector arrested before storm - An inspector for the federal government was facing grand theft charges last fall when he verified a Homestead man's claim for disaster relief, according to testimony and court records. FEMA mailed $11,000 check to Homestead man before verifying damage, trial told - The federal government mailed an $11,000 check to a Homestead man two days before sending him a form asking him to verify his damage claim, according to testimony Thursday at the man's fraud trial. How FEMA disaster relief went wrong - Washington, D.C. · Inexperienced inspectors, savvy applicants and untimely operational changes led to overpayments and fraud in Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Frances, congressional investigators found. Senate panel pledges FEMA reform after finding widespread fraud - A U.S. Senate committee found widespread fraud and waste in the federal government's payout of $31 million to Miami-Dade County residents for Hurricane Frances aid. FEMA ruled on disaster before verifying Dade damage - Decision lets 12,000 in collect millions As Hurricane Frances made landfall 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County last September, a top official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared the county a major disaster area with no evidence of damage and contrary to a presidential order. Audit scolds FEMA over payments - Miami-Dade County residents collected Hurricane Frances aid for belongings they didn't own, temporary housing they never requested and cars worth far less than the government paid, according to a federal audit that questions millions in storm payouts. FEMA's inspectors included criminals - Government inspectors entrusted to enter disaster victims' homes and verify damage claims include criminals with records for embezzlement, drug dealing and robbery, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation has found. FEMA aid for storm paid for too many funerals, figures show - Florida officially recorded 123 fatalities from last year's hurricanes, but the federal government has paid funeral expenses for at least 315 deaths, including those of a man who shot himself and a stroke victim hospitalized more than a week before the last storm hit. State records show Bush re-election concerns played part in FEMA aid - As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show. Records detail how FEMA was cheated on hurricane claims - Miranda Woodard moved out of her south Miami-Dade County home before Hurricane Frances hit last fall but still collected $12,359 from the federal government for damages she claimed at her former address, authorities say. Complaints of FEMA aid fraud stymied by ‘runaround’ - From Miami to Winter Haven to Starke, Floridians have accused their neighbors, colleagues and even their own relatives of taking advantage of the hurricanes by collecting disaster assistance they didn't deserve. FEMA payout scrutiny spreads to other states - From Mobile, Ala., to Detroit to rural eastern North Carolina, the federal government has approved millions in assistance to areas largely unaffected by disasters, even after local officials warned of possible fraud. FEMA declares 22 more counties eligible for Ivan aid, despite little damage - Hurricane Ivan slammed ashore in Alabama in mid-September, but Floridians as far away as Palm Beach County -- 675 miles from the storm's landfall -- can now collect disaster aid from the federal government. Miami-Dade told officials that losses were minor but FEMA aid flowed anyway - Federal officials knew as early as two days after Hurricane Frances that the Labor Day storm had left little damage in Miami-Dade County. State to pay $60 million share of hurricane aid - The state will pay more than $60 million as its share of federal hurricane assistance to Floridians but has no control over how the money is spent or who gets it. Miami-Dade cleans up on FEMA aid - Government aid for Hurricane Frances bought Miami-Dade County residents rooms full of furniture, new wardrobes and thousands of appliances, including microwaves, refrigerators and sewing machines, even though the brunt of the storm missed the county. Smart shoppers come out fine with FEMA aid FEMA's rather generous with reimbursements - At BrandsMart USA, a low-end model Magic Chef microwave costs $28.88. FEMA gave $21 million in Miami-Dade, where storms were 'like a severe thunderstorm' - The four hurricanes that pummeled the rest of Florida hardly brushed Miami-Dade County. Only Hurricane Frances was a factor there -- packing the punch of a bad thunderstorm. Miami-Dade FEMA claims high in poor areas - The manager of a check-cashing store in this southern Miami-Dade city says he has cashed as many as 30 disaster relief checks a day for residents since Hurricane Frances hit Florida on Labor Day weekend.
10/1/06	Essential Air Service Program	Subsidies Keep Airlines Flying to Small Towns Kingman, Ariz.; Brookings, S.D.; or Pueblo are among more than 100 locales around the country that receive federally subsidized airline service, and the average number of passengers on each flight is about three. Most of these flights on 19-seat prop planes have plenty of elbowroom — a rare luxury in this age of sardine-packed commercial jets. Some major airlines have cut their fleets about 20 percent since 2001 and have abandoned unprofitable routes, meaning planes are flying fuller than at any time since World War II. This lunacy comes courtesy of the Essential Air Service, put in place when the airline industry was deregulated in 1978. The idea was to help travelers in smaller cities adjust to the new competitive era of air travel. The intention was for the service to go away after 10 years, but it was renewed for a second decade — and then made permanent. Travelers adjusted very well after deregulation, and started driving the extra distance to busier regional airports nearby that offered increasingly cheap and plentiful jet service. That left the program with mostly empty planes, making them more costly to fly. Add in higher maintenance and fuel costs, and spending has more than quadrupled since 1996, to $110 million. Mike Boyd, a consultant to airports, said “The Essential Air Service program is one of those well-meaning federal programs that often results in money wasted on trying to recreate those wonderful days of the 1950’s,” Mr. Boyd said in a recent note to clients. “Somebody needs to tell Congress that Ozzie and Harriet are gone.”
10/1/06	Congress	Iraqi Reconstruction Projects Waste 55 Percent on Overhead Overhead costs have consumed more than half the budget of some reconstruction projects in Iraq, according to a government estimate released yesterday, leaving far less money than expected to provide the oil, water and electricity needed to improve the lives of Iraqis. The report stated that more money was being spent on housing and feeding employees, completing paperwork and providing security than on actual construction. Those overhead costs have ranged from under 20 percent to as much as 55 percent of the budgets. On similar projects in the United States, those costs generally run to a few percent. To be expected, the highest proportion of overhead was incurred in oil-facility contracts won by KBR Inc., which has frequently been challenged by critics in Congress and elsewhere. The report did not explain why KBR’s overhead costs on those contracts — the contracts totaled about $296 million — were more than 10 percent higher than those at the other companies audited. The actual costs for many projects could be even higher than the estimates, the report said, because the United States has not properly tracked how much such expenses have taken from the $18.4 billion of taxpayer-financed reconstruction approved by Congress two years ago. The report said the prime reason was not the need to provide security. The inspector general pointed to a simple bureaucratic flaw: the United States ordered the contractors and their equipment to Iraq and then let them sit idle for months at a time. But why should they care – its only taxpayer money? The delay between “mobilization,” or assembling the teams in Iraq, and the start of actual construction was as long as nine months. The findings are similar to those of a growing list of inspections, audits and investigations that have concluded that the program to rebuild Iraq has often fallen short for the most mundane of reasons: poorly written contracts, ineffective or nonexistent oversight, needless project delays and egregiously poor construction practices – government at its best! “This report is the latest chapter in a long, sad and expensive tale about how contracting in Iraq was more about shoveling money out the door than actually getting real results on the ground,” said Stephen Ellis, a vice president at Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “These contracts were to design and build important items for oil infrastructure, hospitals and education, but in some cases more than half of the money padded corporate coffers instead.”
11/1/06	NASA	NASA Employees Sleeping on the Job The Apathetic Voter, in his many years in the defense industry, witnessed unparalleled waste and incredibly lax work habits. Fortunately, there are a few organizations that attempt to alert Americans about this situation. NASA Watch recently broadcast photos showing three employees at the Marshall Space Flight Center sleeping at consoles and a fourth playing an online card game. The employees for the NASA contractor Teledyne Brown Engineering worked in the space center's Payload Operations Center, which manages the science operations of the International Space Station. Naturally, a spokesperson for the Space Center responded with the mandatory ''The pictures . . . are not indicative of the performance of the overall team. They're isolated incidents.” A former employee contributed the photos. I’m surprised that NASA didn’t dish the employee claiming he was a disgruntled mentally troubled individual.
11/1/06	Iraqi Reconstruction	$38 Billion Spent on Iraq Reconstruction – To What Benefit? Poor planning and coordination by U. S. officials have plagued the reconstruction effort in Iraq. Among the triumphs: · Provided 4.6 million Iraqis with water · Distributed seeds to farmers · More daily hours of electric power · Repaired 5,000 schools · Vaccinated 4.6 children against polio. But let us not forget that for $38 billion, we should have expected far more, even though sabotage and violence hampered the efforts. Interviews with many Iraqis on the streets raised the question, “What reconstruction?” Iraqis believe that most of the money was pocketed by corrupt Iraqi leaders. Ironically, CHF International, a Silver Springs, Maryland non-profit, has successfully completed hundreds of projects on a Spartan budget. CHF Middle East director, Bruce Parmalee, claims that they avoided local violence by involving local communities in the work. “It was never a case of some Americans saying ‘This is what you need in your country’”. That community-based approach was never shared by others involved in the reconstruction effort. “Large contractors didn’t necessarily have that mandate. Security was challenged right from the beginning.”
11/1/06	Congress	Iraq Fraud a Problem? Simple Solution: Get Rid of Auditors It is no secret that much of the money intended to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure has been wasted. Thanks to a series of reports by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), we know that billions of dollars have been squandered because of incompetence, corruption and fraud. Now Congress has come up with a solution for this embarrassing problem: Eliminate SIGIR. This action is no surprise for a Congress that long ago forfeited its oversight responsibilities -- one big reason for the GOP loss on Tuesday -- but it is outrageous nonetheless. From the outset, lawmakers have been unwilling to find fault with the way the war was being conducted. SIGIR, led by Republican lawyer Stuart W. Bowen Jr., was created by Congress and began operations in January of 2004. The idea was to keep the recipients of Congress' largess honest by conducting audits and inspecting the quality of their work. During its relatively brief life, SIGIR's reports exposed shoddy work in a variety of projects, including prisons, hospitals, clinics and schools. Some reports have led to jail terms for U.S. occupation officials on charges of bribery and conspiracy. A provision quietly inserted into a military authorization bill -- by a person or persons unknown, as they say in police reports -- terminates the agency as of Oct. 1, 2007. Newly elected Democratic lawmakers should make repeal of this provision a priority when Congress convenes. This agency has performed an outstanding service and should be allowed to continue its work so that the public can know how our money is being spent (read wasted) on a war that already has claimed too much U.S. blood and taxpayer money.
11/1/06	Congress	New Democratic Leadership – Same Old “Pork” Now that the Democrats control Congress, hope springs eternal that they would bring large brooms with them to clean out some of the practices that arouse the anger of the American people. The number one grievance would start with a clampdown on earmarks or “pork,” a ruse designed to buy votes back home. Ted Stevens (Republican, Alaska) and the recipient of $200 million for the “Bridge to Nowhere” will be turning over his responsibilities as the powerful chairman of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee to of all people Senator Daniel K. Inouye (Democrat, Hawaii). There’s only one problem. They both thrive on earmarks. Mr. Stevens, an 83-year-old Republican, and Mr. Inouye, an 82-year-old Democrat, routinely deliver to their states more money per capita in earmarks — the pet projects lawmakers insert into major spending bills — than any other state gets. This year, Alaska received $1.05 billion in earmarks, or $1,677.27 per resident, while Hawaii got $903.9 million, or $746.05 per resident. If the Democratic leaders are talking about “earmark reform,” that may be news to Mr. Inouye. “I don’t see any monumental changes,” Mr. Inouye said in a recent interview. He plans to continue his subcommittee’s approach to earmarks, he said. “If something is wrong we should clean house,” he said, “but if they can explain it and justify it, I will look at it.” The number and cost of such projects has soared for years. The Congressional Research Service found that over the last 12 years, the number of earmarks had tripled to 16,000, worth $64 billion a year. Critics argue that the system fosters waste and cronyism by allowing individual lawmakers to direct federal money to pet projects with little vetting or oversight, often anonymously. “I happen to be a supporter of earmarks, unabashedly,” said Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, the Democrat set to become chairman of the appropriations subcommittee for labor, health and human services. “But I don’t call them earmarks. It is ‘Congressional directed funding.’ ” The next chairman of the full Senate Appropriations Committee is Senator Robert C. Byrd, 89, the West Virginia Democrat who may be the foremost master of the art. Dozens of West Virginia bridges, roads and public buildings bear his name. Among his recent appropriations feats was putting the Coast Guard’s Operations System Center, its National Vessel Movement Center and, next summer, its National Maritime Center in his landlocked state. And there are plenty of allegations of wrongdoing where personal in-your-pocket monies are the issue. One is Representative Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, who resigned as the top Democrat on the ethics committee amid questions about his earmarks to nonprofits he founded and to a real-estate partner. Another is Representative Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, who is poised to become chairman of the Energy and Water Committee. The third, Representative Norm Dicks of Washington, a member of the defense panel, is set to be chairman of the Interior and Environment subcommittee. Mr. Inouye said he and Mr. Stevens did not plan to rock the boat. “I had a chat with Senator Stevens before the election,” Mr. Inouye said. “We pledged to each other that no matter what happens, we will continue with our tested system of bipartisanship, and we’ve been doing this for the past 25 years, and it’s worked.”
11/1/06	---	Government Doublespeak Becomes Unspeakable Over the years, society has twisted so many terms that made perfect sense when they were enacted. But the government jumped in starting in the 1950s and started a deluge a meaningless terms that may satisfy government bureaucrats but do nothing for the little people to understand the shenanigans of government. During World War II, it was called the War Department, for that was its purpose. In the 1960s, it was changed to the Defense Department, we can only assume to make its role more palatable to the people, although it’s purpose has never changed. We have all witnessed the various services refer to themselves as “Peacekeepers,” while their role is to kill people. But the government takes the cake for outright stupidity. Many people consider the government’s efforts to corrupt the English language as a deliberate attempt to confuse the people. The government no longer reports how many people go hungry. Now the Agriculture Department reports only people who have “food insecurity.” Even with terrorism, the government offers truly bizarre definitions related to terrorists, whereby attempted suicides by captives are reported as “self-injurious behavior incidents.” One suspect was labeled an “imperative security internee” when constitutional issues arose to hold the suspect as an “enemy combatant.” The Cato Institute’s Timothy Lynch said, “By corrupting the language, the people who wield power are able to fool the others about their activities and evade responsibility and accountability. “ A few other gems of government and commercial doublespeak include: · “Problems” are no longer reported to Congress. Now they are “Challenges.” · Even the commercial sector has hopped on the bandwagon. Used car salesmen now refer to used cars as “pre-owned” autos, as if by changing the term it makes the car more acceptable. · Understandably Slimehead fish is sold as Orange Roughy. Activists supporting abortion refer to a woman’s free “choice.”
12/1/06	FEMA	FEMA Has Collected 1% of Katrina Waste and Fraud The government through its innumerable agencies sure knows how to throw the big bucks around. It has been well documented that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has wasted billions upon billions of dollars providing aid to Hurricane Katrina victims including the 11,000 unused trailers that still sit unused in (ironically) Hope, Arkansas. The executive arm of Congress has estimated that FEMA has been ripped off for at least $1 billion including numerous cases of paying housing payments to people living rent-free. $20 million was wasted on thousands of people who claimed the same property damage from two hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. Even more ludicrous, FEMA paid at least $3 million to 500 ineligible foreign students in the stricken Gulf Coast. So far, FEMA has recouped 1%, or less than $10 million, from tens of thousands of people who have committed fraud. Gregory Kutz said, “I hope FEMA has learned this costly lesson and will make reforms for future disasters.” Anyone want to bet that even larger waste will occur in the next disaster, for who cares, it’s only taxpayer money?
12/1/06		Defense Contractors Waste Billions in Coast Guard’s Terrorism Fight Yes, we’ve all heard the horror stories of the unfathomable waste perpetrated by Halliburton and it’s subsidiaries (KBR, etc.), but they are not the exception, they are the rule. Now two of the giant defense contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman, who have demonstrated miserable incompetence and waste (which the government pays for) on many previous aerospace contracts, have turned to the shipbuilding industry to really gouge the taxpayers. In order to fight the war on terror, the U. S. Coast Guard submitted a plan to Congress to replace its aging fleet of ships, and they made the inexcusable error of permitting these bandits to manage the program with (at best) lax Coast Guard overview. Apparently, the Coast Guard was not aware that these inefficient and incompetent companies have managed to double, triple and quadruple the costs of just about every program they have touched. The “Deepwater” program called for new and modernized ships, planes and helicopters at a cost of $17 billion. The shipbuilding portion of the program could as well been managed by a committee of Court Jesters. To-date, the technologically superior aerospace engineers rode heard over the antiquated naval architects and shipbuilders who have been plying their trade for 5,000 years. They sold a bill of goods to build the new flagship of the fleet from composite materials. Oh yes, they said it was much more expensive but lighter than the old fashioned and heavier high-strength steel that shipbuilders have used for hundreds of years, but the Coast Guard would make the money back over the lifetime of the ships due to reduced maintenance costs. The Apathetic Voter can only wonder if a quartet of violins was playing in the background as they made that pitch, because the chances of that scheme working are about the same as winning the lottery. The stresses that ships encounter in high sea states are monstrous in comparison to the relatively simple problem of designing an aircraft skin. So guess what happened? After the first two ships were built, hull cracks began appearing. Any shipbuilder worth his salt could have accurately predicted that outcome. Even the engines didn’t work. A scale model of the ship was placed in a towing basin test facility, which test the performance of new ships in various sea states. The results were a complete failure but that didn’t halt construction. Indicative of the stupidity of permitting aerospace giants to totally control these programs, they placed radios in the small open boats used to intercept smugglers that were not waterproof, a small detail a shipbuilder would never overlook, so obviously after a short period of time they shorted out. They gave work to their major subcontractors instead of creating valid competition – only 30 percent of the contracts were let to competition. They installed electronic equipment in the ships that the Coast Guard didn’t want – it was probably equipment to track satellites, which the Coast Guard ripped out. One system engineer, who worked for both Northrup and the Coast Guard, said, “This is the fleecing of America. It is the worst contract arrangement I’ve seen in all of my 20 plus years in naval engineering.” The Coast Guard didn’t manage the program, so shame on them, but as with most major defense contracts, mismanagement by the prime contractors is the accepted norm. Congress has been told that the program will now cost not $17 billion but $24 billion. That means you, Joe Taxpayer, again pays for the incompetence of these aerospace giants. They are never held accountable for their gross mismanagement. What Happened to Small Business Minded and Efficient Shipyards? Where does the Apathetic Voter get off making these claims? The Apathetic Voter spent the first 15 years of his professional life in senior management in the shipbuilding and aerospace industries, so I speak with a degree of authority. I left the business because of the lax work habits, inefficiencies and waste I witnessed on a daily basis, almost entirely focused in the arrogant aerospace industry. Shipyards were owned by small tightly knit families or by small companies. Household names in the industry were Todd Shipyards, Ingalls and Bath Iron Works. Sure these companies were terribly antiquated and didn’t reap excessive profits to turn around and invest in the latest technologies. But they knew how to build ships. Then the aerospace giants, Litton, Northrup, and Grumman, to name a few, gained control of these outfits, destroying once and for all the small business entrepreneurial nature and family harmony of these companies. Prices of ships doubled and tripled because these government leeches knew how to milk contracts and engineering change proposals (ECPs) for every penny. Granted that the essence of free enterprise is profit, but their modus operandi borders on criminal behavior, and the government managers didn’t care for it wasn’t their money. The paper trail covers their tails. They sell snake oil to the government bureaucrats, who have no practical experience in these matters, with little perceptible benefit to the government or the product. But it sure fattens the bottom line. Overnight, instead of a tightly knit group designing the ships, aerospace imposed their 10,000-man work force (to maximize profit) destroying the incentives and togetherness that was the key to an efficiently designed and constructed ship. Now each key player was nothing more an insignificant slug in the unnecessarily complex picture. Work habits and motivation suffered calamitously. People didn’t care anymore. They simply showed up to pick up a paycheck. The corporate workplace is continually altered to eliminate efficient and harmonious small business in our culture, and there’s little we can do about it because of the incestuous relationship that’s well documented in the military-industry complex of which we were forewarned starting back 50 years ago in the presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower. It’s a simple equation – the more government – the less small business.
12/1/06	Congress	Congress Closes By Doling Out “Pork” Presents President Bush must be a very altruistic individual. Why just before Congress shut down for the holidays, he authorized an additional $100 million reimbursement rate for the kidney-dialysis providers. I’m sure we can all agree that saving a kidney is in the national interest. But wait a minute. Aren’t these the same providers who proved to be generous contributors to important legislators, notably House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas of Bakersfield, California? House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Thomas got $84,250 in donations during the last campaign cycle from DaVita Inc., a leading dialysis company. Thomas was among the negotiators at the late-night meeting who agreed on the dialysis earmark. Dialysis scored "not because dialysis patients have the most meritorious case," said Sara Rosenbaum, professor of health law and policy at George Washington University, but because the industry is "effective on Capitol Hill." And it wasn’t just the kidney-dialysis that benefited from Congress’ last days. Congress ended up doling out billions of dollars in new spending earmarks for the coal industry, Brooks Brothers and various other interests. There have been more outrageous end-of-session bills, but following this election — when corruption and fiscal incompetence were campaign themes — some lawmakers found the latest package particularly offensive. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) termed the legislative spectacle "embarrassing." Gregg reserved special scorn for a $4.9-billion item requested by coal-state senators for health and mine-safety spending. The lawmakers said such spending was necessary because some coal companies had not fulfilled healthcare responsibilities to miners and because abandoned mines remained a serious problem in coal country. Even Brooks Brothers, an upscale clothing purveyor, walked away a winner. The company was part of a coalition that won about $32 million in refunds of tariffs that it said had penalized the declining domestic shirt-manufacturing industry. The measure also aids domestic cotton growers, many of which are in California. A Brooks Brothers vice president, Joe Dixon, said the company sought the tariff relief to "save clothing manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania and North Carolina." The refunds, he said, would make it possible for Brooks Brothers and other U.S. shirt-makers to better modernize plants and compete with foreign manufacturers. The watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense called the cotton measure "another example of special interests grabbing on to the last train leaving the station…. Obviously Congress didn't think enough of this proposal to pass it on its own during the past two years."