politics

Bernie wants to cut government spending – in the military

Study commissioned by Sen. Sanders finds waste, fraud at Pentagon

by Guy Page

An August, 2021 government study requested by Senate Finance Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) finds that the U.S. Department of Defense has been wasting money.

Entitled DOD Fraud Risk Management, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported “in 2018, DOD reported to Congress that from fiscal years 2013-2017, over $6.6 billion had been recovered from defense-contracting fraud cases. In 2020, the DOD Office of Inspector General reported that roughly one-in-five of its ongoing investigations are related to procurement fraud.” Its recommendations basically urge official Washington to look harder for fraud.

Sanders – who has called for cutting the Pentagon budget since graduating from the University of Chicago in 1964 (and probably before then, too) – as Senate Finance chair is finally in a position to affect American military spending.

“The Pentagon doesn’t seem to want to get serious about combating the fraud, waste, and financial mismanagement that has been its legacy for decades,” said Sen. Sanders in a statement today. “They don’t seem to want to get serious about spending taxpayer dollars wisely and effectively. Well, I think we can all agree, that is absolutely unacceptable. Currently, the U.S. spends more on our nation’s military than the next thirteen countries combined.”

As Sanders also has been saying for a half-century, he prefers spending taxpayer money on butter, not guns.

“Meanwhile, half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, just under 40 million Americans are living in poverty, and over 600,000 Americans are homeless including roughly 40,000 veterans,” Sanders said.

What’s different now is that Sanders must find money for his $3.5 trillion makeover of the American economic system currently in Congress. He knows tax hikes will be unpopular and all fingers will be pointing at him.

Maybe that’s why he’s pointing his at the Pentagon.

Categories: politics

5 replies »

  1. Feel the bern is the worst thing that happened to Burlington the state of Vermont and now our country. All he wants to do is push his socialist propaganda and stick it to the middle class. And bankrupt our country. FREE FREE FREE FREE

    • Bernie has a long legacy of communist and socialist declarations and affiliations. So now he has the purse strings of our (America’s) defense and I am sure his idealistic cohorts Russia and China would like nothing better than to see our military “de-toothed”.
      I find it interesting how he assigns his party as Independent, when in fact he is either socialist or communist depending on the audience.
      Wake up VT or we will all be living under a totolitarian government. Once they are in control it will be a bloody revolution to get back our independance!
      Or maybe you don’t care. Let the government tell you where you sleep, work, what you eat, and who on the ballot you must vote for.

  2. Beanie Sandman wants to cut the military budget ? Where’s the story ? He’s been anti military, anti military industrial complex since he was just a little commie.

  3. If there are over 600,000 homeless solve the problem by 1. Provide affordable housing, 2. Insist they get employment, 3. Assist with affordable child care, 4. For those homeless who are ill, addicts or mentally dependent provide supervised group homes, 5. Eliminate all areas of temporary shelters at all times any locations. 6. Stop throwing money on meaningless social or temporary programs, and 7. Solve the problem, now, not next month or next year. No excuses! As far as Vermont is concerned, the Federal Government is giving us a large sum of money. Would this not be a reasonable cause to eliminate this homeless problem? There are more jobs available than homeless.