I saw Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word where the host asked four tea party group members what they would do to cut government spending and make big government smaller. They all raged on about socialism and wealth distribution, but not one, NOT ONE talked about this kinda’ of government largesse or government waste.
Nearly 18 billion dollars earmarked for reconstruction in Afghanistan remain unaccounted for, snagged in a “labyrinth” of contract bureaucracy, a sweeping US government audit has shown.The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said 17.7 billion dollars was obligated over three years to nearly 7,000 contractors, but the Pentagon, State Department and US Agency for International Development were unable to say how much money has been spent.
The audit addresses fiscal years 2007 through 2009, but the problems go back to 2002 when the United States began funding Afghan reconstruction, because “much of the data available from the agencies prior to 2007 was too poor to be analyzed,” the report said.
Figures doesn’t it that the government waste they should be talking about occurred during a Republican administration which wasted its taxpayers’ money while giving tax breaks to corporations it was also giving taxpayers’ money to. Can you spell double dip anyone?
Related Articles
- “Billions in US Aid Dollars Unaccounted for, Lost in Bureaucratic “Labyrinth”: Audit” and related posts (afghanconflictmonitor.org)
- US ‘not tracking Afghan spending’ (bbc.co.uk)
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