It’s one of those things; a given certainty that we must account for our finances in our daily lives. Every individual who receives earnings, by law, must report the figure on an annual basis for the taxation office to examine. In Australia, the rate sits around an average of 32.5 percent of each dollar. [1] For citizens of the United States, it sits in around the 25 percent mark for an average wage. But, this isn’t about our tax system in the west, or how much we have to pay per dollar we earn for every working hour. This is about the $8.5 trillion of American tax money handed to the Pentagon via Congress since 1996, and the inability to account for its expenditure without repercussions.
But that’s okay. According to employees of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), the Pentagon’s primary accounting agency, this is business as usual. In 1996, new audit laws were mandated at the beginning of the year to force federal agencies accountability in their expenditures. Yet, as Scot Paltrow at Reuters uncovered in an investigation, rather than the Pentagon reporting and justifying their finances, the federal agency has never had to account for the trillions spent in the last 20 years. Fudging the numbers, according to Paltrow, is standard operating procedure for the Pentagon.
Employees of DFAS, have reportedly received routine instructions to take “unsubstantiated change actions,” amounting to falsifying the books. The “plugs” used brought the military numbers into an acceptable line with the Treasury when discrepancies appeared. One employee, Linda Woodford, stated that “a lot of times there were issues of numbers being inaccurate. We didn’t have the details . . . for a lot of it”. She goes on to say “this so-called plugging isn’t unique to DFAS—when it comes to resolving lost or missing information, it’s just business as usual in every branch of the service“.[2]
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022048300
In 2014, the military budget cuts of $52 billion were announced. In response, Secretary of Defense-Chuck Hagel, told a defense conference that “[the cuts are] too deep, too steep, and too abrupt. This is an irresponsible way to govern and it forces the department into a very bad set of choices”. In light of the budget that year, reporting to a total of $581 billion – larger than Russia, China and Saudi Arabia combined, you wonder what Hagel’s fuss was about.
In 2009, Congress reportedly passed a law requiring that the Pentagon and Defense Department be audit ready for 2017.[3]
[1] Retrieved from http://www.paycalculator.com.au/info.html
[2] Paltrow, S. (2013) Behind the Pentagon’s doctored ledgers, a running tally of epic waste. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon/#article/part2
[3] Retrieved from http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs/military_act_2009.pdf
And we are suppose to be surprised? Article is a little off though. Average Americans pay about 32% in taxes. People that make 1 million or more pay around 20%.It has been known for a long time that military wastes more money than any other part of the gov. Yet we allow our congress to give the military 57% of our budget. Why not waste it on education or medicare for everyone.