The Pentagon has never passed an audit nor has been expected to pass one. The government has spent hundreds of millions on conducting audits that they knew the Pentagon would not pass. DOGE has set its focus on eliminating waste from one of America’s untouchable branches – the Department of Defense.
The DoD currently has 1.3 million active duty troops and 1,014,000 contractors. The Defense Business Board told the agency five years ago that it could save $125 billion over a five-year period by renegotiating these contracts. In fact, half of the Pentagon’s Imaginate budget is spent on contractors. The agency outsources everything including basic administration roles to companies who then charge the agency top dollar. Hence, the Pentagon is the bureaucrats’ favorite money laundering service.
No one wanted to step on the toes of the military industrial complex. It’s no conspiracy to believe that the majority of legislators were being paid out in one way or another. One benefit of having billionaires in this administration is that they do not need the money and likely cannot be bought out. Elon Musk is stepping on the toes of the likes of Lockheed Martin and Boeing and calling for massive reform.
Musk wants to discontinue the F-35 stealth fighter jet program, which he deemed “the worst military value for money in history,” and the jet itself “an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none” and added that “manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway.” Yet, Congress has refused to pass such a bill because of the heavy lobbying efforts. DOGE estimates that eliminating this program could save the government $12 billion annually and allow funds to flow into new endeavors. But lawmakers insist this will eliminate American jobs provided by Lockheed, so US taxpayers should simply continue paying.
Not so coincidentally, the department is consistently misplacing funds for its F-35 program. In May 2023, the Pentagon admitted that it misplaced thousands of F-35 jet parts to the tune of $1.6 trillion. One month later and they admitted to misplacing another $6.2 billion in funds that were destined for Ukraine. The agency shrugged as millions in Ukraine aid went missing each year. “We have confirmed that for FY23, the final calculation is $3.6 billion, and for FY22 it is $2.6 billion, for a combined total of $6.2 billion,” the Pentagon press secretary said. “These valuation errors in no way limit or restricted the size of any of our PDAs or impacted the provision of support to Ukraine.”
The government has been willing to pay any price for the most basic of services. Boeing overcharged the Air Force by 8,000% for soap dispensers, for example. A 2018 audit found that the Audit was also paying $1,300 per disposable K-cup on its KC-10 aircraft. Of course, that isn’t where the money is actually going. That is merely the paper trail they are leaving in the open.
DOGE is looking into cutting down the number of American military bases. The department is looking at foreign grants, such as the $40 million provided to Chinese researchers to develop AI technology. The Defense Department inspector general revealed that EcoHealth Alliance received $46.7 million in defense funds from 2014 to 2023. EcoHealth then aided in funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab where the coronavirus was created. The widespread misuse of taxpayer funds is astounding.
The US Defense Department quietly admitted to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) that it simply misplaced $824 billion during the last major audit. Do not forget that when a whistleblower admitted the Pentagon has $2.3 trillion in unaccounted funds, a few major buildings in New York fell and started a contagion of events. The agency has never explained the whereabouts of those funds nor has it explained the trillions that have gone missing since then.
