Thanks Bush! Another $60 Billion down the drain...

Military Spending Waste: Up To $60 Billion In Iraq, Afghanistan War Funds Lost To Poor Planning, Oversight, Fraud

WASHINGTON -- As much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents, an independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending estimates.

In its final report to Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting said the figure could grow as U.S. support for reconstruction projects and programs wanes, leaving both countries to bear the long-term costs of sustaining the schools, medical clinics, barracks, roads and power plants already built with American tax dollars.

Much of the waste and fraud could have been avoided with better planning and more aggressive oversight, the commission said. To avoid repeating the mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, government agencies should overhaul the way they award and manage contracts in war zones, the commission recommended.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the commission's 240-page report in advance of its scheduled public release on Wednesday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/3 ... 42723.html

I'm sure there is a way we can make this all Obama's fault. It will just take a day or two for conservatives to work out the details.

60 billion is a drop in the bucket. Pretty sad that the debt is so out of control that 60 billion is nothing.

SS109 wrote: 60 billion is a drop in the bucket. Pretty sad that the debt is so out of control that 60 billion is nothing.

enough drops can fill a bucket.

archer wrote:

SS109 wrote: 60 billion is a drop in the bucket. Pretty sad that the debt is so out of control that 60 billion is nothing.

enough drops can fill a bucket.

Glad to see you have seen the light. How fast does that bucket fill up when the drops are two trillion each.

I made this point months ago........whenever Democrats suggest we cut here....or add revenue there.......all I seem to hear from conservatives is "well THAT won't solve our deficit problem", and of course you are right.....THAT alone will not.....but add all the possibilities together and you have filled up the bucket that you need. That is the reasoning behind such ideas as letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire....no, that will not solve the problem, but it adds some more to the bucket. Just as changing the formulas for medicare and social security will add to the bucket, and eliminating the waste in the military, that should add a lot of drops, and allowing medicare, medicaid and the Vet Admin negotiate RX prices.....all will add to that bucket. Where I take issue with some of the Tea Party ideas is that they want to take huge chunks out of some programs while not investigating other ideas......not using increased revenue as a way to lower the deficit is short sighted. We are in such a BIG mess, we need to use all the tools available to us to chip away at the enormous debt we carry.

Just as any family would do what they can to reduce their debt, cut what spending they can, take in as much new revenue as they can, but preserve what makes their family healthy and happy. It can be done.....it has to be done, but both parties have to be willing to let go of some of their sacred cows. So far all I hear from the right is the democrats have to give up SS, medicare, medicaid, education, labor, and any other program that is declared a "social program" by the Tea Party.....but the Tea Party will give up nothing......the wealthy will still get their tax breaks and their tax loopholes, corporations will be given even greater tax breaks, and increased revenue is forever off the table. That's a lot of drops that will never make it into the bucket, and we will be much longer in dealing with our debt.

Wow - you mean to tell me that the federal government wasted $60 Billion dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan out of a total federal budget of $25 Trillion over that time frame? That's got to be what, about one quarter of one percent? Outrageous I tell you, simply outrageous, and completely unacceptable. You wouldn't happen to have the waste and fraud figures for SSDI and Medicare over that same time frame handy would you LJ?

archer wrote: So far all I hear from the right is the democrats have to give up SS, medicare, medicaid, education, labor, and any other program that is declared a "social program" by the Tea Party.....but the Tea Party will give up nothing......the wealthy will still get their tax breaks and their tax loopholes, corporations will be given even greater tax breaks, and increased revenue is forever off the table.

That is such a crock that I am tempted to make a reference to kool aid. I think we have had this dance before, so continue to believe since nothing I can say will sway you. We can talk about it after the next election.

kool-aid indeed, If you don't think that the Tea Party's ultimate agenda is to decimate the social programs in this country, then you have indeed drunk too much of it.

archer wrote: kool-aid indeed, If you don't think that the Tea Party's ultimate agenda is to decimate the social programs in this country, then you have indeed drunk too much of it.

For a free thinker who arrives at independent findings , it is amazing how your opinions mirror every DNC talking point.