OtherWords
Lindsay Koshgarian
12/07/2022
Can you imagine the audacity to fail a multi-trillion dollar audit of public funds, and then ask for even more of those taxpayer dollars?
Pentagon leaders just did exactly that.
This month news broke that the agency once again failed to pass a basic audit showing that it knows where its money goes. And instead of holding out for any kind of accountability, Congress stands ready to give a big raise to an agency that failed to account for more than 60 percent of its assets.
This is a sign of an agency that is too big, plain and simple.
Other major government agencies have long since passed audits. But the Pentagon — with its global sprawl of more than 750 military installations, expensive contractors, and boondoggle weapons systems — is so big and disjointed that no one knows where its money goes.
Here’s a simple solution: the Pentagon needs to be a lot smaller.
After 20 years of war, when government spending is desperately needed elsewhere, the Pentagon’s fifth failed audit in as many years — it’s never, ever passed — should be the last straw.
