As budget hawks continue their attack on spending cuts around the country, it might be useful to look at the Pentagon after a new report released Thursday claimed that at least $7 billion in taxpayer funds are being wasted in purchasing of spare parts that the Defense Department ends up not needing. The Pentagon enjoys a $663.8 billion budget for 2010, the largest in the world. —JCL Reuters: A Pentagon agency buys over $7 billion worth of spare parts every year the Defense Department ends up not needing, a practice one senator decried as an “unbelievable” waste of taxpayer money. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report released on Thursday that the Defense Logistics Agency had no use for parts worth $7.1 billion, more than half of the $13.7 billion in equipment stacked in Defense Department warehouses on average from 2006 to 2008. “The waste of taxpayer dollars is unbelievable,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent and Senate Budget Committee member who requested the study. Read more
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The Pentagon’s Spare Parts Problem
