The Long, Expensive History of Defense Rip-Offs

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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/defense-military-waste-cost-timeline

1778
General George Washington decries the suppliers overcharging his army: "It is enough to make one curse their own Species, for possessing so little virtue & patriotism."


1794
The Navy's first order for frigates faces shipyard delays, and its cost shoots up to more than $1.1 million.


1861
A House committee exposes fraud, favoritism, and profiteering in Civil War contracting. Its findings, writes the New York Times, "produce a feeling of public indignation which would justify the most summary measures against the knaves whose villainy is here dragged into daylight."

1941

"Investigator Truman" Time/Wikimedia Commons
Sen. Harry S. Truman kicks off a dogged investigation of wasteful war production. The Truman Committee, which runs into World War II, is credited with saving as much as $15 billion (more than $230 billion in today's dollars).