Does anyone find this worrisome?

[PLC1]

or is it just expected of Washington these days?

Pentagon overspending, delays getting worse, auditors find

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon is $295 billion over budget on dozens of key programs and taking more time to deliver the systems to the front lines, according to a report released by a government watchdog agency.

$295 billion works out to 2,950 per taxpayer, figuring 100 million taxpayers. Does anyone have a problem with this?

 

[Pandora]

or is it just expected of Washington these days?

Pentagon overspending, delays getting worse, auditors find



$295 billion works out to 2,950 per taxpayer, figuring 100 million taxpayers. Does anyone have a problem with this?

Do they ever say why they get over budget? I personally never understood why this cost so much. I think they are pocketing money. Remember the 900 dollar toilet seats and 300 dollar hammers from way back?

 

[pocketfullofshells]

Do they ever say why they get over budget? I personally never understood why this cost so much. I think they are pocketing money. Remember the 900 dollar toilet seats and 300 dollar hammers from way back?

while some of that is clearly just dumb and mismanagement, scamming and that ( who knows maybe it all added up to black op funding lol) but part of the problem is scale of economy. The Military often needs things built to very exact specs that are no the norm. Normally the costs of things get spread out over thousands or even millions of the same unit made...in military cases it may be that they need 6 or 8 only. and you can't spread the cost out much when you have 8 made. Some if of it is wasteful, but some of it is just economics.

I have more issue with Pork projects that the Military does not even request or that are only build for politics, not military need. the Missile Defense system is riddled with this stuff from some of what I have heard, or things like the Crusader a few years back, that really seems to have been build to keep some congressmen happy not out of need. I have Read about Ships build for the navy...that the navy said it did not want or need...but it was jobs and some congressman got his pet project anyway to keep people happy. I hope if McCain ends up winning, he does not exempt the military from his no pork mantra.

I am sure Bush CO. No bid contracts don't help much as well.

 

[Pidgey]

They also have to buy gasoline and diesel just like the rest of us. I read an article recently (this week) about how big the number was for the rise of fuel costs and it was into the billions, if memory serves.

Pidgey

 

[Libsmasher]

Anyone who has worked in defense knows the other half of the story, rarely reported - that the government CAUSES overruns by stop and start funding, by constantly changing requirements, by forcing decisions to be built around political decisions, eg that state X should have some of the production, or that Y number of blacks need to be promoted, etc etc etc.

 

[pocketfullofshells]

Anyone who has worked in defense knows the other half of the story, rarely reported - that the government CAUSES overruns by stop and start funding, by constantly changing requirements, by forcing decisions to be built around political decisions, eg that state X should have some of the production, or that Y number of blacks need to be promoted, etc etc etc.

I agree, its because of blacks.....

 

[Andy]

Do they ever say why they get over budget? I personally never understood why this cost so much. I think they are pocketing money. Remember the 900 dollar toilet seats and 300 dollar hammers from way back?

That was a mathematic fabrication. It never happened that they over paid by so much. At least as much as I've have looked it up, there is no record of any such event. If someone can show me where this actually happened, please do. But thus far, it's just another urban legend spawned by anti-military crowd.

That said, building military equipment is horribly encumbered by the inherent political ties. Plus, a common issue is with under estimating the cost of a project in order to get it approved.

The two items listed here are: First, late changes to the requirements of the project. "we're going to build it to do X and Y" then a year later "oh can we add Z to X and Y?" Second, more software coding then initially thought necessary. "What? 3000 lines of code doesn't do everything?".

Both are common issues in the private sector too. More code and late changes to projects often rack up huge cost.

I highly doubt they are pocketing the money. There are far too many watch dog groups that hate the military. In the rare event it does happen, they will without doubt, be discovered and prosecuted.

 

[foggedinn]

Do they ever say why they get over budget? I personally never understood why this cost so much. I think they are pocketing money. Remember the 900 dollar toilet seats and 300 dollar hammers from way back?

I was under the impression that the $900 toilet seats an $300 dollar hammers were just a way of accounting for funds that were actually used for black ops. Making the public angry about things that were beyond the publics control was better than exposing secret operations through line items in the federal budget.

What really staggers the imagination is that just our over runs are greater than the world second largest military budget.

 

[PLC1]

I was under the impression that the $900 toilet seats an $300 dollar hammers were just a way of accounting for funds that were actually used for black ops. Making the public angry about things that were beyond the publics control was better than exposing secret operations through line items in the federal budget.

No doubt that's a factor, just as no bid contracts are a factor, bureaucratic inefficiency is a factor, and constantly changing the requirements is a factor. There is not likely to be one simple explanation for the huge cost overruns in the military or any other government program.

What really staggers the imagination is that just our over runs are greater than the world second largest military budget.

Yes, that is truly mind boggling!