This will probably make Democrats very happy after DOGE has gone after, and continues to go after, waste and fraud in lots of other agencies, since they tend to hate the military. Republicans will be unhappy, but, if they think about it, reducing waste and fraud in the military will give more money for actual operations. It could allow for increasing pay for service members. And it could reduce the budget as it stands, since the military budget has always been overly bloated. That might have been fine during the Cold War, not now
Trump Admin Reportedly Set To Cut Billions In ‘Unnecessary’ Spending From Pentagon Budget
Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly moving to gut billions of dollars from the Pentagon’s budget, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote to senior Pentagon leadership Tuesday that he wanted an 8% reduction in the defense budget in each of the next five years, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. Hegseth directed leaders to deliver a plan for the budget cuts by Feb. 24, citing wasteful spending and “bureaucracy” as part of the reasons for the cuts.
The move comes as the defense budget has ballooned to $850 billion, according to the DOD.
“President Trump’s charge to DOD is clear: achieve Peace through Strength,” Hegseth reportedly said in the memo. “The time for preparation is over — we must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence. Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit.”
Government agencies are extremely competitive in an attempt to increase their budget every year, and the military branches are some of the worst, which leads to wasteful spending and significant overspending. You know the $600 dollar hammer story? Well, the hammers weren’t actually $600. They were like $15. But, there was a $420 add-on for R&D. Every time for every hammer. They could have gone and gone a Stanley or Craftsman hammer with lifetime warranties. $7600 coffee makers. $500 ashtrays (some might remember Al Gore going on a late show trying to break one. Could have gotten plastic ones from Walmart for $10). Building cost overruns into contracts, guaranteeing there will be cost overruns.
Some questionable purchases from the Pentagon included $6.1 million on lobster tails in September 2024, and $16.6 million on ribeye steaks and $6.4 million on salmon. Additionally, the Pentagon spent $5.1 million on Apple products, including 130 iPhone 16 Pro Maxes, which are considered luxury versions of the base iPhone 16 model.
Pissing away money to make sure they spend the whole yearly allocation so they can get more the next year. This is how you get surplus. Surplus of bullets is great. Surplus of lots of other stuff is not. How much does it cost to actually operate? That should be the basis of every agency, just like in the private sector. If something comes up, OK, there might be money for that. Remember, the Pentagon has failed 7 straight audits. What would happen in the private sector if a division failed one, much less 7?
These Toilet Seat Lids Aren’t Gold-Plated, but They Cost $14,000
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Over the past few months alone, the Defense Department has had to explain why it’s been paying $14,000 for individual 3-D printed toilet seat lids and purchasing cups for $1,280 each. These are just the latest examples on a long list of unacceptable purchases made by the department, including $436 for hammers in the 1980s, and $117 soap dish covers and $999 pliers in the 1990s.
If you were in charge of procurement in the private sector, would you be employed once your bosses saw something similar? Would your small business still be open if you did this?
(Ashlime) Back in January of 2015, as far fewer people know, the Pentagon issued a internal study which found the agency could cut $125 billion in unneeded spending over a five-year period. That averages to about $850 for each of our nation’s 140 million taxpayers. In other words, for the money that was wasted, by their own admission, they could have bought a $600 hammer for every taxpayer in the country—and still returned $250 to every one of them.
Is that a realistic number, or, could it be more like $250 billion? So, yeah, if you are a conservative you should want the military to be a lean, mean, fighting machine and not waste taxpayer money. They should have what they need, but, be responsible.
No doubt there is a LOT of waste in the military. But the greatest costs, just like at GM, are for personnel. If you really want to cut the budget, you need the military to get smaller.
Currently, the military is the size it is because the military plays wargames based on imaginary enemies and decides based on that what the right size of the military should be to win those imaginary wars. Then congress tell us, based on their own re-election chances how much they are willing to spend on the military. If you base those decisions on a smaller imaginary enemy, you can make the armed forces smaller to match.
The military has a bad habit of feeding their own people. Sometimes you get steak, sometimes you get spaghetti. The Army has an active strength of about 480K. Even if you are feeding them spaghetti 2 meals a day, the cost of the sauce will be millions of dollars a year. So, 6 million for lobster, to feed a total active force of over a million isn’t all that much at all. Lobster is just one ingredient in a menu, as is beef (sometimes steak, sometimes burger), as is ice cream, as is salad. Do you really think feeding your troops, especially when they are deployed to hardship areas, is something you should be cutting every penny on? They aren’t getting steak and lobster at every meal. They are getting a balanced diet with normal levels of variety that you should expect for any first world nation.
As I have been saying for decades, the Army should reasonably be half the size it is now. Other services should take similar cuts. 5 Aircraft carriers is enough for anyone.
Given that we haven’t spent a penny ACTUALLY defending this country since 1945, I’d say there are plenty of cuts that MUST be made.
MrL, that is a perfectly valid point of view. I do wish to point out that being ready to potentially defend the country is also a valid cost. Raising a military and preparing it for war is not something that happens overnight.
Of course President Elon started his assault on the military by cutting the VA.
Fugging clowns.
Well, President Trump is already cutting military spending by getting rid of the trannies who want ‘gender reassignment’ surgeries!
But the 47th President is going to be somewhat hamstrung by what our 46th President did: much of the aid wasted on Ukraine was actually the shipment of older American military equipment to that lost cause, meaning that that equipment is supposed to be replaced by newer equipment purchased. Hard decisions will have to be taken on equipment that was supposed to be replaced, and whether we can do without it.
The war proved that much of our material is obsolete and even the strategy of war is changing.
According to the GAO, Trump spends about $3 MILLION per weekend trip to Mar-a-Lardo, where he goes every weekend. What makes this so cool for the Prez is that part of that money goes into his pocket!! He charges the Secret Service to rent rooms and golf carts. Cool.
At least $11 MILLION and it’s only been a month!
He’s firing thousands of IRS agents to make it easier to cheat on his taxes. Nice.
Rimjob hasn’t a clue nor the faintest acquaintance with the truth.
Losing will do that.