It was tax that motivated the original tea party, and taxation and spending policy are still very much sore points with their modern counterparts. Whatever side of the political spectrum one is on, there's no getting away from the fact that the government wastes absolutely stratospheric sums of money every year. This short article is an attempt to highlight this issue - both for tea party conservatives and other citizens who care about their country and how its tax revenues are used.
The US military has a sorry record of mismanaged equipment procurement, although to be fair this has often been the result of political decisions. Wasteful, badly handled procurement initiatives have led to the loss of many billions of dollars over the years. Political leaders talk up the need to make savings while overlooking the huge sums already sunk into what are often sound projects.
In 2002 the Crusader mobile cannon was abandoned at a cost of $2 billion after army chiefs decided it no longer met their requirements. In 2004 the army also canceled the Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter after spending $7 billion on it. They then later canceled its replacement incurring further losses that ran into the hundreds of billions.
The air force and navy too have their share of stillborn projects. The EFV (Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle) project that was developed for the marine corps was canceled in 2011 after having $3 billion of a projected $15 billion spent on it. It was an amphibious assault vehicle designed to transport soldiers from the sea onto hostile beach terrain. It was abandoned after policy makers decided the cost per vehicle was too high.
Away from direct military spending, the Pentagon has also squandered staggering sums on never-used civil airline tickets. From 1997 to 2003 it booked approximately 270,000 tickets at a cost of $100 million. These unused tickets were eligible for refunds but defense bureaucrats didn't see fit to claim them. Between 2001 and 2002 the Pentagon also paid twice for 27,000 tickets, which added another $8 million to the millions already wasted.
Medicare is perhaps the most wasteful of all Federal programs but its popularity among the electorate makes reform a delicate issue. One big area of waste is spending on drugs and other supplies, for which it routinely pays far more than it needs to (in some instances, eight times more). The Department of Health and Human Services found that Medicare typically pays double what is paid by the Department of Veteran Affairs for the same supplies.
The preceding examples are bad enough, but at least the money spent has been accounted for. A 2003 report by the Department of the Treasury revealed $24.5 billion in so-called 'unreconciled transactions'. These are expenditures that auditors are unable to account for, or put more simply, it's money that has simply vanished.
This kind of extravagance and incompetence is making increasing numbers of taxpayers angry. Lawmakers however, despite talking endlessly about making reforms, seem unable to ever actually do it. If grass-roots organizations like the tea party can find ways to get momentum behind their cause, they may one day get the value for money they want.
The US military has a sorry record of mismanaged equipment procurement, although to be fair this has often been the result of political decisions. Wasteful, badly handled procurement initiatives have led to the loss of many billions of dollars over the years. Political leaders talk up the need to make savings while overlooking the huge sums already sunk into what are often sound projects.
In 2002 the Crusader mobile cannon was abandoned at a cost of $2 billion after army chiefs decided it no longer met their requirements. In 2004 the army also canceled the Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter after spending $7 billion on it. They then later canceled its replacement incurring further losses that ran into the hundreds of billions.
The air force and navy too have their share of stillborn projects. The EFV (Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle) project that was developed for the marine corps was canceled in 2011 after having $3 billion of a projected $15 billion spent on it. It was an amphibious assault vehicle designed to transport soldiers from the sea onto hostile beach terrain. It was abandoned after policy makers decided the cost per vehicle was too high.
Away from direct military spending, the Pentagon has also squandered staggering sums on never-used civil airline tickets. From 1997 to 2003 it booked approximately 270,000 tickets at a cost of $100 million. These unused tickets were eligible for refunds but defense bureaucrats didn't see fit to claim them. Between 2001 and 2002 the Pentagon also paid twice for 27,000 tickets, which added another $8 million to the millions already wasted.
Medicare is perhaps the most wasteful of all Federal programs but its popularity among the electorate makes reform a delicate issue. One big area of waste is spending on drugs and other supplies, for which it routinely pays far more than it needs to (in some instances, eight times more). The Department of Health and Human Services found that Medicare typically pays double what is paid by the Department of Veteran Affairs for the same supplies.
The preceding examples are bad enough, but at least the money spent has been accounted for. A 2003 report by the Department of the Treasury revealed $24.5 billion in so-called 'unreconciled transactions'. These are expenditures that auditors are unable to account for, or put more simply, it's money that has simply vanished.
This kind of extravagance and incompetence is making increasing numbers of taxpayers angry. Lawmakers however, despite talking endlessly about making reforms, seem unable to ever actually do it. If grass-roots organizations like the tea party can find ways to get momentum behind their cause, they may one day get the value for money they want.
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