Bernie Sanders: Audit Department Of Defense, Contractors Wasting Money While Soldiers On Food Stamps

[Proserpina]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/12/29/bernie_sanders_audit_the_department_of_defense.html

video at link

BERNIE SANDERS: The day before 9/11 -- September 10, 2001, this guy that I have nothing to do with, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he gave a speech and he said that there are trillions of dollars in the Dept. of Defense that we can't account for.

That was Rumsfeld the day before 9/11 -- the speech never got a lot of attention.

The Department of Defense is the only agency of government, to my knowledge, that cannot sustain an independent audit.

You go to them and ask how many private contractors we have. Well, they really don't know. It's so complicated, a huge complicated system.

I believe when we talk about making government more cost effective, it doesn't simply mean cutting Medicaid and food stamps.

What it does mean is taking a hard look at an agency which recieves $600 billion per year where there is an immense amount of waste and fraud.

And while we have massive cost overruns with defense contractors, we've got deployment after deployment for our soldiers, and we've got military families on food stamps. So maybe we want to change that.

[tecelote]

1. This is why people love Bernie...

and the Oligarchy does not.

Oversee Defense Spending? How dare he!

[Scuba]

2. K&R

[nenagh]

3. K&R

[Dustlawyer]

4. Can never be posted enough!

There is so much waste, fraud, and abuse we could fully fund the best public education in the world, paying teachers what they are worth to get really good people to go into those careers! We have some really good ones now, but most have school loans they cannot pay on a teacher's salary!

[lark]

5. Oh no, can't uncover the way the government steals the money and uses it for things they shouldn't.

Must keep the slush funds hidden!!! Bush was even so bold to put a slush fund in his budget, it got voted down with the 2nd budget so now back to the usual way of stealing/hiding the $$.

[Enthusiast]

6. Kicked and recommended!

[nashville_brook]

7. k and r

[nyabingi]

8. So when our government tries to

convince us that austerity measures are the only way to keep our society on the track, remember that this country is not broke and that there is more than enough if our government were actually committed to the principle that everyone (and everything, namely corporations) should contribute their fair share.

The Defense Department and the contractors it supports with our tax dollars are the biggest, most wasteful and most useless drain on our resources, human and otherwise. I'm glad Bernie is calling attention to it because no one else is (and that makes it even more special because he's running for the presidency).

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. oh yes!

[azmom]

10. Yessssss

[mhatrw]

11. ACCOUNT-ability

Is that really to much to ask for our $600 billion?

[AwakeAtLast]

12. This OIF Veteran's wife says "Hell yeah!"

And, "It's about time!"

The MIC won't make it easy.