Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Budget’ Category

Terminator: Governor plans to slash state workers’ pay

Posted by Charlie Kilo on July 24th, 2008

The govinator hits California state workers pay. Expect to see states like Michigan and Florida follow suit:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans next week to slash the pay of more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum of $6.55 per hour to help ease the state’s budget crisis, according to a draft executive order obtained by The Chronicle on Wednesday.

The governor also will order an end to overtime pay for all but critical services, a freeze on state hiring and the immediate layoff of nearly 22,000 temporary, seasonal and student workers

GAO says $6 BILLION given to Pakistan can’t be accounted for

Posted by patriot on June 24th, 2008

Oops, we lost some more money…

The United States has not accurately tracked about $6 billion it gave to help the Pakistani government fight terrorism since 2001, according to a report released Tuesday.

Pakistan is the largest recipient of payments from the Coalition Support Funds, which gives money to 27 partner countries to help combat terrorism.

The country, which the Department of Defense considers a key ally in the war on terrorism because of its proximity to large swaths of ungoverned tribal land, has received $5.56 billion of $6.88 billion given out since September 11, 2001.

But a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs said the Coalition Support Funds cannot prove that the money went to projects or operations specifically fighting terrorists.

House leaders fund another year of Iraqi disaster

Posted by patriot on June 18th, 2008

Lovely.. no restrictions on your tax dollars:

House Democratic and Republican leaders have reached a deal on a war funding bill that will fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into early 2009, several congressional sources said Tuesday.

The bill includes $165 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the rest of this year and into early 2009, without any restrictions on the money.

GAO: Feds Live Lavishly on Credit Cards

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 9th, 2008

I guess membership has its privileges: 

Federal employees charged millions of dollars for Internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, lavish dinners and other questionable expenses to their government credit cards over a 15-month period, congressional auditors say.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, examined spending controls across the federal government following reports of credit-card abuse at departments including Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

The review of card spending at more than a dozen departments from 2005 to 2006 found that nearly 41 percent of roughly $14 billion in credit-card purchases, whether legitimate or questionable, did not follow procedure — either because they were not properly authorized or they had not been signed for by an independent third party as called for in federal rules to deter fraud.

For purchases over $2,500, nearly half — or 48 percent — were unauthorized or improperly received.

Out of a sample of purchases totaling $2.7 million, the government could not account for hundreds of laptop computers, iPods and digital cameras worth more than $1.8 million. In one case, the U.S. Army could not say what happened to computer items making up 16 server configurations, each of which cost nearly $100,000.

Agencies often could not provide the required paperwork to justify questionable purchases. Investigators also found that federal employees sometimes double-billed or improperly expensed lavish meals and Internet dating for many months without question from supervisors; the charges were often noticed only after auditors or whistle-blowers raised questions.

Continued…

$3 trillion estimate low on Iraq?

Posted by patriot on April 7th, 2008

What the real number is is anybody’s best guess:

President Bush has tried to give the impression that the $3 trillion dollar estimate of the total cost of the war that we provide in our new book may be exaggerated.

We believe that it is, in fact, conservative.

Pork, pork, pork

Posted by patriot on April 2nd, 2008

Oink, oink:

A watchdog group critical of pork barrel spending released its latest findings Wednesday targeting the top Congressional “porkers.”

A government watchdog group released its annual report Wednesday on Congressional pork barrel spending.

Some of the biggest pork projects, according to the group, include a Lobster Institute; the Rocky Flats, Colorado, Cold War Museum; and the First Tee, a program to build young people’s character through golf.

Members of Congress requested funds for all these pet projects and thousands of others last year, according to the latest copy of the annual “Pig Book” released by Citizens Against Government Waste.

“Congress stuffed 11,610 projects” worth $17.2 billion into a dozen spending bills, the group said in the report released Wednesday.

GAO blasts weapons budget

Posted by patriot on April 1st, 2008

I’m glad to see our tax dollars so hard at work:

Government auditors issued a scathing review yesterday of dozens of the Pentagon’s biggest weapons systems, saying ships, aircraft and satellites are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.

The Government Accountability Office found that 95 major systems have exceeded their original budgets by a total of $295 billion, bringing their total cost to $1.6 trillion, and are delivered almost two years late on average. In addition, none of the systems that the GAO looked at had met all of the standards for best management practices during their development stages.

Auditors said the Defense Department showed few signs of improvement since the GAO began issuing its annual assessments of selected weapons systems six years ago. “It’s not getting any better by any means,” said Michael Sullivan, director of the GAO’s acquisition and sourcing team. “It’s taking longer and costing more.”

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