Occurs in the department of defense. Don't misquote me as saying DoD is a waste of money, but let me explain a little bit.

Come August/September every year (the end of the fiscal year is October), the supply/fiscal officer will start soliciting the various departments they support in a frenzy, asking "what do you need", in order to spend to their budget limit. This mentality is to ensure that the unit they're responsible for doesn't receive *less* money the next year. This is inefficient, as instead of finding ways to save the "company" money, they try to find ways to prove that it "costs more".

This is all throughout the ENTIRE department of defense, from the head of every major branch all the way down to the brand-spanking-new lieutenant at battalion level commands.

^^A major fucking problem.

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QFT

Their contractors and subcontractors are on the same gravy train.
Billions we're talking here.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

When I was in the military and now with my wife being in charge of the budget for her clinic i can say that this is spot on. I would be faced with X ammount of bucks come Sept/Oct and would be ordered by my superiors to spend every penny. We didn't need a fucking thing but I found myself buying copiers, fax machines, new computers, new computer chairs etc etc etc. All because if you don't spend what they give you they will drastically cut your funding the next year. You quite literally go from having too much to barely having enough to cover pencils and shit. It's a fucked up system.

That being said, two shitty wars and meddling across the globe doesn't exactly save us pennies either.

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Yeah, I'm usually one to say that defense is probably first on my priority wish list for the Federal Government. That being said, we should be spending that money efficiently, not like a bunch of boneheads.



No. With a 'b'.

Ham

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Do you believe yet?

My Finacee's jobless on Monday if they can't share the fucking cookie on capitol hill... Pisses me off so much.

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I probably shouldn't say this but when my wife was in charge of the dollars in her old squadron she would bring home the survival catalogs and I'd help her pick out packs, knives, multi-tools, thermals, flash lights etc etc etc for everyone in the office. I got quite a bit of sweet top of the line gear because of mando budget spewing. My wife deploys and what not but she's the last troop that will need survival gear, plus uncle Sam will issue you most of what you need before you head to the sand box anyway so the survival gear she bought was obviously just spending for spending's sake.

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And yet here the Republicans are ready to dig in their heels and shut things down over $30 billion that might go to Planned Parenthood. Really effective strategy there. Way to address the root of the problem.

I just shake my head when I hear all these ass clowns talking about small nickle and dimes shit when we're digging into impossible debt through war. Can't talk about that but fuck the unions and teachers cause they are the real root of our debt....fucking hell.

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It's so fucking inefficient. It drives me crazy.

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Almost all municipalities(and people in general) work by this same precedent. If the SSI check you received was more than enough for you to get by on, you'd get steak instead of hamburger before you sent them a check back, right? People are greedy. It's their nature. No over staffed government agency is going to let people go, and send the money back to the feds, so I don't know why the DoD is getting the big black eye for it when they ALL do it. This happens all over on the state level as well. I imagine these abuses are why the tea-party was formed, but they turned into unrealistic mindless zombies in a hurry.

As for the shut down. How does 30 billion make a shits ass difference in 3.6 trillion?????????? Who in the fuck are the Republicans trying to fool. Boner is trying to keep too many people happy(which will keep him his job), and in turn is going to fuck up the whole country in the meanwhile. I've said it before, I like the tea parties motives(can't believe I'm saying that either), but now they're just causing more division and problems, when we need joint solutions. BTW, I'm not saying the Dems are saints here either. It seems that both parties only want to cut things that the other party likes/wants.

I didn't say to let anyone go, I said to stop the senseless spending. Why did I pick the DoD? 1) I've witnessed it first hand at many levels, and 2) it's the second highest expense (19% of the federal budget). I'm sure the other agencies do it too, but I can only speak for what I know.

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Yeah Daz I think you missed what happens.
If department X has a budget of say $5 million...if they only spend $4.8 million that's all they be budgeted for the following year.
So department X makes damn sure every single year they spend $5 million whether they need to or not (usually it's not). It's spending for spendings sake to keep their piece of the pie.

This also has nothing to do with any pending government shutdown...that's happening because:
1. Democrats never even attempted to pass a budget for fiscal year 2010 when they had full control (because they were scared of letting the public see how craptastic it would have been)
2. Both parties won't budge on ideological grounds (although why a wildly profitable "non-profit" like planned parenthood needs Federal funding is beyond logical explanation)

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Yeah, I was just going to say that any government (local, county, or state) does exactly the same thing. I work for a county and I remember them coming to us in the past asking us to think up of a project and we can get as much OT as possible to work on it because they have to spend their OT budget. That has calmed down now, well, since my county has been several millions in the hole for a few years now. Most OT budget are pretty much gone now.....

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Been to a Planned Parenthood office lately? It's far from swank I'll tell you that. It's also the only access many poor women get to medical treatment of any sort within a given year.

And I don't know how much of the disputed $30 billion would go to PP, and how much would go to other programs that supply family planning and perform abortions. Other recipients might be much more in need than PP.

PP does great things and using this political stance as ammo to hold up vital monies is just plain fucked. Fuck the Tea Party and the GOP. I'm not on the Dem's are sweet band wagon, just a little tired of Republicans being such douchie cunts every time they get a chance. Holding up my family's pay because they want to have a pissing contest is sick. Blame whoever you want or hold true to whatever opinion you have but holding America hostage is just irresponsible. Republicans are acting like my kids when they don't get what they want. Keep holding your breaths fuckers, that seems like a good way to lead.

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The point is the Federal government has no reason to be giving them grants and they don't NEED grants.
It's an unnecessary and distracting political football just like the marriage issue.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

It takes 2 to tango.
Saying this was manufactured by the party that controls 1/2 of 1/3 of government is silly.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

oh...and Robert Reich called it a month ago
http://robertreich.org/post/4467669419

Be pissed at the GOP all you want, it was the President's failure to see what Reich did that cost Democrats this fight.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

This is what my point was to a "T". It's not just the DoD, it's rampant everywhere. I also fully understand WHY they do it. They have to appear to need every penny of funding, and more.

In 1947 the U.S. changed the name of the Department of War to the Department of Defense. I think that subtle change had a profound impact on budget negotiations ever since.

If congress is negotiating the budget for the Department of War and we are not actually at war, then it is easy to make the argument that the budget should be less than at a time of war. However, if you propose cutting the budget for defense, even at a time of peace, well then, you are just weak on national security and possibly an enemy of American freedom.

The total amount of our tax dollars spent on "defense" for 2012 is between $1.030–$1.415 trillion. Our military spending is now equal to that of the rest of the world combined.

Since I don't see us ever going back to the Department of War title, perhaps it is time we expanded the definition of defense. Isn't it part of the U.S. defense to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure? Doesn't a strong country need modern roads, bridges, ports, and electronic and communications grids? Doesn't a strong country need police, firefighters, nurses, and emergency first responders? Doesn't a strong country need the best schools in the world to prepare the next generation of Americans to compete in that world?

Aren't those things part of the defense of the nation?

There is so much more needed for the real defense of our country than just another boondoggle weapons system or a bloated and wasteful military-industrial complex.

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th' only knower of th' cosmic mysteries alive at this time