Where is Doge when we actually need them, or is Doge not really about rooting out "waste, fraud and abuse" and instead is a hyperpartisan group not actually about any of those things?
Doge was a scam implemented to allow fElon access to squash any investigations into him and his corporations, steal our data, and cripple the departments in charge of enforcing regulations into his interests. In an administration full of scandals, I feel like this is the biggest one.
Biggest one to me was Trump merging his fucking Truth Social company with a a fucking fusion energy corporation.
The two companies had literally nothing in common, even 12 years ago it would've been an unimaginable Earth shattering scandal, the likes of which people would've been in awe of the fact that it was even attempted. To say it's a conflict of interest is an understatement, Trump is setting up himself and his family to potentially become the richest people in human history, yet it was barely a blip in the news cycle. Clearly it's so corrupt that Trump would rather bury it than even attempt to justify it.
Even then, I saw some dumbass MAGAtards actually ask what the MAGA take on it was, like they were literally ASKING for the propaganda spin so they could support it. I don't understand how some people can be so hopelessly brainwashed.
Everything in this administration is a grift. The war in Iran makes his sons money now that they are defense contractors. They are determined to run the country like a business, specifically one they have bankrupted.
Almost like it was a hypocritical grift and that the Trump admin is full of con artists and liars who are too incompetent to be holding their positions...
....just like Trump opponents were saying for years
My comments always get removed here for being too short, so I’m going to try a short comment under this one: how on earth do you spend billions on food and decor unless you are attempting to end world hunger??
Musk himself admits in various interviews it was basically a scam to clear the way for the supposed "singularity," in Musk's view the gov is f'ed anyway. Doge was either to the buy time or gut regulation, whether or not it worked didn't matter because it was zero cost to him. He is part of this religion that thinks the singularity is coming and nothing else matters.
It’s very funny to me how the richest, or second richest, person on earth believes in utter nonsense and is a complete rube. I read some of his Epstein emails and what not. The dude is a giant pathetic nerd with no social skills. He’s petty, pathetic, and duped by everyone around him.
Say what you will about Ellison, Bezos, Gates, Buffet, etc. none of these people are easily fooled idiots. It’s a wonder Elon got rich at all. It feels like he’d fall for almost any scam if it was worded the right way.
Austerity for some, lavish spending for others. Even in a somewhat fiscally responsible administration, the pentagon’s budget is off the charts. This is just asinine, though.
How do you think Hegseth got the tax money he can waste? From DOGE cutting funding for everything the average Joe could use and handing it to the corrupt GOP.
The Dept of Defense/War had $93 billion left in the budget to spend.
So, rather than return the money and reduce the fiscal deficit, Pete Hegseth decided to blow the money on frivolous purchases, none of it related to the defense of the country.
For comparison - that same $93 billion would have either funded the war with Iran for 3 months or stabilized the Social Security or the USPS or provided meals to the kids, especially in the red states, or fixed some of the crumbling infrastructure, etc
But no - the fiscally responsible GOP would rather spend the tax payer money on fruit baskets, ice cream machines and lobster tails.
This isn’t a republican issue. It’s a us government problem. Every administration has done the same thing in September. 2008 and 2010 Septembers saw over $450m in furnishings alone. Our wasteful government, regardless of what party runs it, needs to be checked.
No because I’m not a baseless fool who believes everything their spoonfed by their favorite news outlet. Do your own research, the spending in obamas government was very similar.
They literally gave an example that proves youre living in delusion. Our debt almost entirely comes from electing republicans, who are demonstrably incapable of governing.
Lets compare 450 million vs 93 billion. That is 0.05% of what Kegbreath spent. Additionally, do you have any idea what the furniture was for? I mean sounds like a big ass number, but do you understand that barracks, bases, housing, foreign service, embassies, offices all have a shit ton of floor space and furniture needs? That number is not at all out of place for that… lobster however? Oh btw, 2008 was still also under a republican (Bush). But go on, both sides harder
“Very similar” in what category exactly? Federal spending isn’t one bucket. Furniture and facilities costs come from specific agency administrative budgets. Also, $450M in a ~$3.5T federal budget is about 0.01%, so presenting it as proof of systemic waste is misleading unless you can show the exact accounts and comparable projects across administrations.
>This isn’t a republican issue. It’s a us government problem.
Well, we can talk about this being a "bOthSidEs" issue when the waste/fraud/abuse approaches the 10-15 Trillion dollars we have wasted over the last 25y on GOP tax cuts for the people that needed it the least and 2 (now maybe 3) worthless pointless forever wars in the middle east
To my recollection, no democratic administration in my 46y lifetime has ever just blown nearly a 100 BILLION dollars out of their ass on frivolous nonsense, from ONE Department/Agency
And this is a 100B that we know of, Kristi Noem already appears to have blown nearly a Quarter Bil on a stupid ass unnecessary ad campaign that mysteriously went to a company whos founding ink was barely dry and run by former cronies of hers
This is the most corrupt and inept administration in american history
And yes, thats a GOP problem, im sorry, gtfoh with that both sides noise lol
There is a general problem with WFA in the government, This scale and level is distinct to the GOP
The wasteful as fuck spending is distinct to the GOP, every goddamn time the GOP gets its hands on the federal government the very first thing they do is add another few trillion to the debt starting wars and handing money to rich people--- prove me wrong lol
People who are saying this isn’t a US government issue are either bots or naive.
As Eisenhower said, “Beware of the military industrial complex, for it will be a concern in 2026 when an unpopular president puts an idiot as secretary of defense and they spend a lot of money.”
I'm a sailor and have witnessed first hand the spending habits of the Pentagon.
But, that was a different era with responsible politicians and a manageable deficit.
This era & spending is disgusting. There are plenty US bases that require funding for schools and other infrastructure upgrades. This same money could have been spent on the vets, rehabilitating them.
Maybe we can get people to stop electing politicians who vigorously promise to root out fraud waste and abuse and then ... do no such thing and, in fact, the opposite?
The bothsidism thing is a real way to sabotage any attempt at accountability.
Yea I looked up some sort of way to solve this and basically the only way would be for the same exact for the following year and bonus out all the money thats currently left.
But then you grow the issue of people not spending the budget appropriately in order to get a bonus.
So the current way is the only way that removes the human grifting that hopefully gets spent on the department.
Do it then. I looked into this problem before. This is how budgets are designed on the federal level because it has to be approved in congress.
This is what people that just have opinions and never research things feel is the best because they literally have no experience and just have their big feelings to go off of.
True “efficiency” would result in excess funding and budgets perpetually being reduced. It’s a matter of not doing the job “too well” because then they’ll expect it every time.
Do you know anyone who wants to get rewarded with less for doing a good job?
Can unused budgeted money for the military be easily reallocated towards those social programs tho? Not that I disagree with what you’re saying, but I bet it’s not that simple
I would argue that as an estimated three months. They apparently think a large scale war is good for the US economy in light of what happens with oil & shipping. He might’ve thought if he didn’t spend it, he wouldn’t get more, but seems like we’re finding out his priorities.
funnily enough, the democrats are the only ones trying to actually improve life in red states. it hampers them electorally though, because the denizens of those red states don’t want the benefits, because “those” people might get some of them.
Without looking into it more my best guess of what likely happened is the pentagon allocated extra funds in September in preparation for the October government shutdown. All of the lobster/crab/ice cream machine talk is extremely negligible when we’re talking about the pentagon. If people are upset about the budget of the pentagon, welcome to America. It’s been like this for 90 years.
93 billion on frivolous things? I mean 93 million I get. But spending 93 billion is hard to do. And I honestly don't get how this could be possible. Lobster, steak, ice cream, ipads, that's not getting to 93 billion and those are the bulletpoints I keep seeing. Something in the reporting here isn't right. And not to minimize it, some of these expenditures area absolutely unacceptable. But this feels like when trump claimed clamping down on fenanyl saved 500 million lives last year.
How is it even possible to spend 93 Billion on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab??? This wreaks of misconduct, embezzelement, fiscal abuse, and/or straight up theft.
The title is a little misleading. They spent 93 billion. That spending included things like fruit basket stands, chairs and crab. It included other things as well.
The donut shop is probably run by somebody’s relative or business partner. It’s like Kristi Noem getting $220 million for her associates to shoot a commercial.
not saying it was or wasnt wasteful, but it doesn't specific how big the orders were. Maybe they were spending $500 on a dozen donuts or maybe that order was 20 boxes of donuts for $500.
>In November 2024, the Pentagon failed to pass its annual audit, meaning that it wasn’t able to fully account for how its $824 billion budget was used. This was the 7th failed audit in a row, since the Department of Defense became required to undergo yearly-audits in 2018.
>In 2024, nine of the twenty-eight Department of Defense sub-audits passed, an increase over the seven passing sub-audits in 2022 and 2023. None failed outright, but in fifteen there wasn’t enough information to come to a conclusion and in one, isolated, but not pervasive, errors were found. The decentralization and size of the Department of Defense, with $4 trillion in assets dispersed across fifty states and over 4,500 locations worldwide, is blamed for this accounting failure.
While it's reasonable to expect some level of secrecy over sensitive budgetary choices, it still paints a bleak picture of DoD / DoW spending.
> In other pricey food purchases, the government decided to drop $15.1 million for ribeye steak (again, just in September), $124,000 for ice cream machines, and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts.
The same ppl recently losing their minds about the mayor of Baltimore spending $93M on this type of stuff over like 5-6 years, are surely going to be upset by the pentagon blowing 1,000x times as much money on the same stuff over 83% less time? Right?
That subreddit is so heavily moderated, that I’m pretty sure it’s an even more twisted lense into true Republican voters’ minds than regular old Reddit is for lefties
Anyone remember back in the late 80’s/early 90’s when the pentagon was accused of waste like $2k hammers? Well at least there was a good reason; it was cover for a brand new intelligence campus in Northern Virginia. This however is just a pure “eff you” to poor people.
In the meantime, I haven't been able to renew my SNAP after getting laid off because they don't have enough operators to conduct a necessary interview and no physical office in my area to verify my ID.
Meanwhile I’m seeing clips from a Michelle Obama interview where she noted they had to pay for all the food they ate at the White House. If she and the kids wanted to fly somewhere without Obama they had to pay for it.
I would love to see President JB Pritzker, the day after he is sworn in, issue an emergency executive order directing his FBI to arrest every one of these corrupt members of Trump's cabinet to be held in jail pending prosecution by his Justice Department, led by Jack Smith, for their wildly outrageous corruption and theft of public funds.
And while awaiting prosecution, all of their assets are frozen pending auditing and liquidation to claw back all of the money they have stolen.
How much school lunch “debt” would that money wipe out? Probably all of it. How many textbooks would it buy? How many medical bills? How much housing for unhoused veterans? The list of good it could do is almost endless.
Okay, fuck Hegseth, and with that out of the way, wtf is this garbage?
I don't approve of spending 40m on steaks, lobster, ice cream or other luxuries for the military, but 40m isn't even .1% of 93b. Even if you include the 220m on furniture, that's still not even close to the full tally.
This is as dishonest as the crap about millennials being fiscally irresponsible because they like to drink premium coffee occasionally. Is it something that could be cut to accommodate a more responsible budget? Yes. Is it the cause overarching problem? Fuck no, and it's dishonest to even pretend it is.
Unfortunately the left is barely any more competent in spotting lies and sensationalism than the right is. It's disheartening. Especially because it's often used as ammo against them. People don't like thinking through things, only black and white strong convictions and emotions with minimal effort.
Yeah just because Kristi noem purchased herself 2jets, paid a shell company a couple million, Trump is selling crypto, suing his own government, his kid is meddling in oil just before the war with Iran, Kash Patel is flying around in fbi jets with his girlfriend.
That's just the tip of the iceberg but yeah just because Republicans are blatantly corrupt doesn't mean hegs is.
I didn't defend any of those things? There's a million horrendous things various members of the administration has done, this just happens to not really be a big one. This is how budgets work in government and in corporate, you use it or lose it. It's stupid, but hard to get around and not really a story here.
Your average redditor is not "the left", maybe liberals at best. Though a moot point for someone going to bat for an administration whose figurehead would be facing double-digit life sentences if the country's laws applied to him.
I am a democratic socialist (in the U.S. context that is pretty far left) who would like to see the entire administration rot in prison for life and several of them should be tried for treason. Hegseth is an embarrassment and should have been laughed out of the confirmation just because of his blatant white supremacy, violent religious leanings, alcoholism, and complete lack of qualifications. And that is before all the childish, petty, warmongering, murderous, callous actions he's taken since.
I am not going to bat for this administration, I am expressing frustration that the U.S. left is not holding itself to a higher standard with how we react to "news" like this.
Worse than Michael Scott going to Burlington Coat Factory. Actually, this amount could have purchased Burlington 4 times at their current market cap and still have 17 billion left to work with.
When I talk to family members about how much tax payer dollars they’re wasting, they become visibly upset and fidgety. It’s like their brain is short circuiting from the mental gymnastics they do hourly to rationalize this bullshit.
Why does this come as no surprise?? Cuts for the U.S. Military War Vets. Cuts for those needing help to buy food. Yet a huge largesse, and a life of immense luxury and extravagance for Trump and his MAGA Cult administration……….
What frustrates me is that the money doesn’t make sense anymore. We used to hear about some vast sum attached to some public project and either be intimidated enough to stop asking for it, or a breakdown of the project budget would be published, and we’d all look at it: “Oh. Well. That’s why, then. Gots to get it done anyway.”
Now?!?
“It’s going to cost” —NO— “It already cost this much and it’ll cost a lot more if anyone is petty enough to want to see the books”
And that’s it. So what I’m worried about is that somehow all this money never existed, or did exist but it won’t exist anymore if it’s in somebody’s bank account, just because. Yet we all have to come up with our actual real existing money when our bills are due.
Im having trouble solely blaming Hegseth considering this is just how the military does its budgeting. If you spend less than you were given, you lose it the next year. We need to change the system. I had a friend in the air force who was telling about the extremely nice chairs they had in the office because of this problem, and that was years ago.
Yep! One day a total accounting of just how much he thew away on useless crap will come out and the saddest part is the taxpayers money will just be gone with zero benefit to them. There will be no clawing it back.
I am so tired of these fing people. So glad I’ve done everything I could to get ahead to still be trapped renting with costs still rocketing barely getting by with this going on.
gmb92 | 3 hours ago
Where is Doge when we actually need them, or is Doge not really about rooting out "waste, fraud and abuse" and instead is a hyperpartisan group not actually about any of those things?
https://newrepublic.com/post/207536/kristi-noem-department-homeland-security-hiding-thousands-trucks
TraumaBondage | 2 hours ago
Doge was a scam implemented to allow fElon access to squash any investigations into him and his corporations, steal our data, and cripple the departments in charge of enforcing regulations into his interests. In an administration full of scandals, I feel like this is the biggest one.
Normal512 | 2 hours ago
Don't forget to set up AI voter suppression or outright election rigging (every Republican accusation is a confession).
Poon-Conqueror | 2 hours ago
Biggest one to me was Trump merging his fucking Truth Social company with a a fucking fusion energy corporation.
The two companies had literally nothing in common, even 12 years ago it would've been an unimaginable Earth shattering scandal, the likes of which people would've been in awe of the fact that it was even attempted. To say it's a conflict of interest is an understatement, Trump is setting up himself and his family to potentially become the richest people in human history, yet it was barely a blip in the news cycle. Clearly it's so corrupt that Trump would rather bury it than even attempt to justify it.
Even then, I saw some dumbass MAGAtards actually ask what the MAGA take on it was, like they were literally ASKING for the propaganda spin so they could support it. I don't understand how some people can be so hopelessly brainwashed.
TraumaBondage | an hour ago
Everything in this administration is a grift. The war in Iran makes his sons money now that they are defense contractors. They are determined to run the country like a business, specifically one they have bankrupted.
Pepsi_Popcorn_n_Dots | an hour ago
Also to raise oil prices while getting an excuse to end sanctions on Russian oil needed to keep their war and economy going.
dittybad | an hour ago
DOGE was needed to erase any evidence and digital trails showing 2024 election was stolen for Trump. Mission Accomplished.
TraumaBondage | an hour ago
High school statistics could have told anyone the election was hacked. No one seems to care enough to do anything about it.
sik_dik | 2 hours ago
I wouldn’t say biggest. But I would say most overlooked/underrated
gside876 | 28 minutes ago
Is there a reason he can’t be sued for that? He was never sworn into anything
TraumaBondage | 17 minutes ago
I am more than a little surprised some intrepid lawyer hasn't put together a class action lawsuit.
Yellowdog727 | 2 hours ago
Almost like it was a hypocritical grift and that the Trump admin is full of con artists and liars who are too incompetent to be holding their positions...
....just like Trump opponents were saying for years
hellogoawaynow | 2 hours ago
My comments always get removed here for being too short, so I’m going to try a short comment under this one: how on earth do you spend billions on food and decor unless you are attempting to end world hunger??
Illustrious-Lime-878 | 2 hours ago
Musk himself admits in various interviews it was basically a scam to clear the way for the supposed "singularity," in Musk's view the gov is f'ed anyway. Doge was either to the buy time or gut regulation, whether or not it worked didn't matter because it was zero cost to him. He is part of this religion that thinks the singularity is coming and nothing else matters.
ProfessionalOil2014 | an hour ago
It’s very funny to me how the richest, or second richest, person on earth believes in utter nonsense and is a complete rube. I read some of his Epstein emails and what not. The dude is a giant pathetic nerd with no social skills. He’s petty, pathetic, and duped by everyone around him.
Say what you will about Ellison, Bezos, Gates, Buffet, etc. none of these people are easily fooled idiots. It’s a wonder Elon got rich at all. It feels like he’d fall for almost any scam if it was worded the right way.
ManChildMusician | 2 hours ago
Austerity for some, lavish spending for others. Even in a somewhat fiscally responsible administration, the pentagon’s budget is off the charts. This is just asinine, though.
Infinite-Pomelo-7538 | an hour ago
How do you think Hegseth got the tax money he can waste? From DOGE cutting funding for everything the average Joe could use and handing it to the corrupt GOP.
Rabid_Alleycat | 59 minutes ago
DOGE is receiving many of those military contracts…and probably a fruit basket.
Pers0nalUs | 3 hours ago
The Dept of Defense/War had $93 billion left in the budget to spend.
So, rather than return the money and reduce the fiscal deficit, Pete Hegseth decided to blow the money on frivolous purchases, none of it related to the defense of the country.
For comparison - that same $93 billion would have either funded the war with Iran for 3 months or stabilized the Social Security or the USPS or provided meals to the kids, especially in the red states, or fixed some of the crumbling infrastructure, etc
But no - the fiscally responsible GOP would rather spend the tax payer money on fruit baskets, ice cream machines and lobster tails.
Thegangsterle | 2 hours ago
Republicans were never the fiscal party. They are really good at selling snake oil.
BigMeanBalls | an hour ago
Oh they're just great with money, as long as the destination is their pockets
cryptocorrection69 | 2 hours ago
This isn’t a republican issue. It’s a us government problem. Every administration has done the same thing in September. 2008 and 2010 Septembers saw over $450m in furnishings alone. Our wasteful government, regardless of what party runs it, needs to be checked.
vtsandtrooper | 2 hours ago
No its a republican issue. You can shut up with all that champ. We will place blame where it absolutely belongs.
cryptocorrection69 | an hour ago
No because I’m not a baseless fool who believes everything their spoonfed by their favorite news outlet. Do your own research, the spending in obamas government was very similar.
SubjectWorry7196 | an hour ago
Doesn't everyone remember when HUSSAIN Obama tore down the left wing of the white house to build a ballroom!?
Edit: youre a retard.
cryptocorrection69 | an hour ago
lol changing the topic because you know I’m right. Sick move bro!
Petrichordates | 56 minutes ago
They literally gave an example that proves youre living in delusion. Our debt almost entirely comes from electing republicans, who are demonstrably incapable of governing.
Remember where we were before Bush?
vtsandtrooper | 47 minutes ago
Lets compare 450 million vs 93 billion. That is 0.05% of what Kegbreath spent. Additionally, do you have any idea what the furniture was for? I mean sounds like a big ass number, but do you understand that barracks, bases, housing, foreign service, embassies, offices all have a shit ton of floor space and furniture needs? That number is not at all out of place for that… lobster however? Oh btw, 2008 was still also under a republican (Bush). But go on, both sides harder
Raichu4u | an hour ago
“Very similar” in what category exactly? Federal spending isn’t one bucket. Furniture and facilities costs come from specific agency administrative budgets. Also, $450M in a ~$3.5T federal budget is about 0.01%, so presenting it as proof of systemic waste is misleading unless you can show the exact accounts and comparable projects across administrations.
padizzledonk | 23 minutes ago
>This isn’t a republican issue. It’s a us government problem.
Well, we can talk about this being a "bOthSidEs" issue when the waste/fraud/abuse approaches the 10-15 Trillion dollars we have wasted over the last 25y on GOP tax cuts for the people that needed it the least and 2 (now maybe 3) worthless pointless forever wars in the middle east
To my recollection, no democratic administration in my 46y lifetime has ever just blown nearly a 100 BILLION dollars out of their ass on frivolous nonsense, from ONE Department/Agency
And this is a 100B that we know of, Kristi Noem already appears to have blown nearly a Quarter Bil on a stupid ass unnecessary ad campaign that mysteriously went to a company whos founding ink was barely dry and run by former cronies of hers
This is the most corrupt and inept administration in american history
And yes, thats a GOP problem, im sorry, gtfoh with that both sides noise lol
There is a general problem with WFA in the government, This scale and level is distinct to the GOP
The wasteful as fuck spending is distinct to the GOP, every goddamn time the GOP gets its hands on the federal government the very first thing they do is add another few trillion to the debt starting wars and handing money to rich people--- prove me wrong lol
Chris7654333 | 21 minutes ago
People who are saying this isn’t a US government issue are either bots or naive.
As Eisenhower said, “Beware of the military industrial complex, for it will be a concern in 2026 when an unpopular president puts an idiot as secretary of defense and they spend a lot of money.”
Beneficial_Link_8083 | 3 hours ago
While I can't act like this isn't bad, the Pentagon's spending habits are rather infamous for several decades now.
Pers0nalUs | 2 hours ago
I'm a sailor and have witnessed first hand the spending habits of the Pentagon.
But, that was a different era with responsible politicians and a manageable deficit.
This era & spending is disgusting. There are plenty US bases that require funding for schools and other infrastructure upgrades. This same money could have been spent on the vets, rehabilitating them.
jrex035 | 2 hours ago
>There are plenty US bases that require funding for schools and other infrastructure upgrades.
Friendly reminder that they cannibalized this money to pay for the "warrior dividend" check soldiers got last year
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay-benefits/2025/12/trumps-warrior-dividend-for-troops-is-housing-money-approved-by-congress/
Pers0nalUs | an hour ago
I completely forgot about that.
Thanks for the reminder :).
Fly_Rodder | 18 minutes ago
Maybe we can get people to stop electing politicians who vigorously promise to root out fraud waste and abuse and then ... do no such thing and, in fact, the opposite?
The bothsidism thing is a real way to sabotage any attempt at accountability.
No_Worse_For_Wear | 2 hours ago
This is true of virtually every budgeted agency, govt or not.
It’s absurd, but the behavior is that if you don’t “exhaust your budget” for a particular year, you may not get that budget approved again next year.
HumorAccomplished611 | an hour ago
Yea I looked up some sort of way to solve this and basically the only way would be for the same exact for the following year and bonus out all the money thats currently left.
But then you grow the issue of people not spending the budget appropriately in order to get a bonus.
So the current way is the only way that removes the human grifting that hopefully gets spent on the department.
SubjectWorry7196 | an hour ago
You're so right, accountability is woke and gay.
HumorAccomplished611 | an hour ago
Go ahead and design a way that will work. I'll wait
Its like the people that want to pee test welfare receipents. Theyve done it a dozen times. In Florida it cost 20 million to save 1 million.
Its similar in government
Petrichordates | 50 minutes ago
Literally anybody could design a better system, the use it or lose it system is irrationally designed.
HumorAccomplished611 | 44 minutes ago
Do it then. I looked into this problem before. This is how budgets are designed on the federal level because it has to be approved in congress.
This is what people that just have opinions and never research things feel is the best because they literally have no experience and just have their big feelings to go off of.
No_Worse_For_Wear | 42 minutes ago
Easier said than done.
True “efficiency” would result in excess funding and budgets perpetually being reduced. It’s a matter of not doing the job “too well” because then they’ll expect it every time.
Do you know anyone who wants to get rewarded with less for doing a good job?
SubjectWorry7196 | 28 minutes ago
No I agree, its super woke and gay man. You're so right.
Petrichordates | 51 minutes ago
No it literally incentivizes wasting money. That directly encourages grift.
HumorAccomplished611 | 39 minutes ago
And if there was a better way people would do it.
The government has way less waste than corporate america.
Honest-Recording-751 | 2 hours ago
Or perhaps could have provided those doge checks most are still waiting on
tribbans95 | 2 hours ago
Maybe the department of war could’ve bought uhh idk war related stuff like guns and missiles to spend their budget..
Illustrious-Lime-878 | 2 hours ago
You think they stock up on an assload of ammunition or something. How is it possible they couldn't find things to spend money on lol
Dick_Lazer | 2 hours ago
They could’ve spent it on the troops, toward VA hospitals, etc. But nope, just hand out frivolous gifts to the more fortunate.
PmMeYourNiceBehind | 2 hours ago
Can unused budgeted money for the military be easily reallocated towards those social programs tho? Not that I disagree with what you’re saying, but I bet it’s not that simple
dotcubed | 2 hours ago
I would argue that as an estimated three months. They apparently think a large scale war is good for the US economy in light of what happens with oil & shipping. He might’ve thought if he didn’t spend it, he wouldn’t get more, but seems like we’re finding out his priorities.
Petrichordates | 48 minutes ago
Your first mistake was thinking that they thought about any of that.
reddit_understoodit | 2 hours ago
Did you just advocate for spending in red states?
glwillia | 2 hours ago
funnily enough, the democrats are the only ones trying to actually improve life in red states. it hampers them electorally though, because the denizens of those red states don’t want the benefits, because “those” people might get some of them.
reddit_understoodit | 2 hours ago
It should be spending for people who qualify, regardless of red or blue state.
glwillia | an hour ago
i agree. red states tend to be the economic laggards though.
Pers0nalUs | 2 hours ago
No. I live in the New England area and solidly Dem.
The logic was that since they control the House and the Senate, they could've spent the money on the schools in their constituencies.
But, that some money could've gone towards upgrading the schools on the bases or improving the infrastructure on the bases or rehabilitating the vets.
thereisnospoon-1312 | 2 hours ago
Could have funded the health insurance assistance that was cut. Bastards
NYR_LFC | an hour ago
They're the "me and mine" party
AnteaterFormal7291 | an hour ago
$93bn will only last 4.5 days if Trump goes "20x harder" like he's promising
Petrichordates | 57 minutes ago
Isn't the "use it or lose" policy directly from DoD itself? So he could just end it?
frozented | 52 minutes ago
It could have brought 4 Ford class carriers or 20 subs or 40 destroyers or replenished our munitions stocks
Pers0nalUs | 42 minutes ago
More importantly, we need modern ice class ships for the USCG to effectively do their job.
Currently, while sailing to the Thule AFB, Greenland, we do not have ice breakers and have to rely on the Canadians.
one_more_byte | 51 minutes ago
It really puts things in perspective when you realize NASA only has a $26B yearly budget…
Chris7654333 | 28 minutes ago
Without looking into it more my best guess of what likely happened is the pentagon allocated extra funds in September in preparation for the October government shutdown. All of the lobster/crab/ice cream machine talk is extremely negligible when we’re talking about the pentagon. If people are upset about the budget of the pentagon, welcome to America. It’s been like this for 90 years.
valyrian_picnic | 18 minutes ago
93 billion on frivolous things? I mean 93 million I get. But spending 93 billion is hard to do. And I honestly don't get how this could be possible. Lobster, steak, ice cream, ipads, that's not getting to 93 billion and those are the bulletpoints I keep seeing. Something in the reporting here isn't right. And not to minimize it, some of these expenditures area absolutely unacceptable. But this feels like when trump claimed clamping down on fenanyl saved 500 million lives last year.
woolybully143 | 3 hours ago
How is it even possible to spend 93 Billion on Fruit Basket Stands, Chairs, and Crab??? This wreaks of misconduct, embezzelement, fiscal abuse, and/or straight up theft.
ivecompletelylostit | 3 hours ago
Yeah there's laundering going on there
mccoyn | 2 hours ago
The title is a little misleading. They spent 93 billion. That spending included things like fruit basket stands, chairs and crab. It included other things as well.
nufandan | an hour ago
hold on a minute, im supposed to read the article before commenting???
CatNamedRIchard2 | an hour ago
No, this is Reddit. You don't need to read anything.
DruidicMagic | 2 hours ago
There's absolutely no way he spent 93 billion dollars.
That cash is probably sitting in a Russian bank.
SecureInstruction538 | 2 hours ago
Across all components, locations of military facilities, and logistics? I can see billions without even trying.
Question is, is all the food being kept in DC or is this spread across the entire organization?
TweakedNipple | 2 hours ago
No way this is possible, the article doesn't even make sense... " $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts." that's $512 per order or $42 a doughnut?
ElephantRider | an hour ago
There are millions of employees in the DOD, $139k is basically one doughnut and a large coffee for just the employees at the Pentagon one time.
Dick_Lazer | 2 hours ago
The donut shop is probably run by somebody’s relative or business partner. It’s like Kristi Noem getting $220 million for her associates to shoot a commercial.
Owmuhback | an hour ago
"An order of doughnuts" does not mean you order exactly a dozen every time. It's probably several dozen per order on average.
Petrichordates | 43 minutes ago
Are we assuming each order of donuts if like 50 boxes? When does that ever happen? Hundreds of times?
nufandan | an hour ago
not saying it was or wasnt wasteful, but it doesn't specific how big the orders were. Maybe they were spending $500 on a dozen donuts or maybe that order was 20 boxes of donuts for $500.
defaultedebt | 2 hours ago
This isn't really new. The Pentagon has failed 7 audits in a row:
https://econofact.org/factbrief/has-the-pentagon-failed-its-7th-audit-in-a-row
>In November 2024, the Pentagon failed to pass its annual audit, meaning that it wasn’t able to fully account for how its $824 billion budget was used. This was the 7th failed audit in a row, since the Department of Defense became required to undergo yearly-audits in 2018.
>In 2024, nine of the twenty-eight Department of Defense sub-audits passed, an increase over the seven passing sub-audits in 2022 and 2023. None failed outright, but in fifteen there wasn’t enough information to come to a conclusion and in one, isolated, but not pervasive, errors were found. The decentralization and size of the Department of Defense, with $4 trillion in assets dispersed across fifty states and over 4,500 locations worldwide, is blamed for this accounting failure.
While it's reasonable to expect some level of secrecy over sensitive budgetary choices, it still paints a bleak picture of DoD / DoW spending.
mccoyn | 2 hours ago
> In other pricey food purchases, the government decided to drop $15.1 million for ribeye steak (again, just in September), $124,000 for ice cream machines, and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts.
Why is everyone always asleep around here!
ergonomicdeskchair46 | an hour ago
$512 per donut order. Checked out Krispy Kreme. That’s averaging 22 dozen donuts per order. Almost 71k total donuts
UnObtainium17 | 19 minutes ago
I’d never make fun of Jameis Winston for stealing crab legs ever again.
Glad-Veterinarian365 | 2 hours ago
The same ppl recently losing their minds about the mayor of Baltimore spending $93M on this type of stuff over like 5-6 years, are surely going to be upset by the pentagon blowing 1,000x times as much money on the same stuff over 83% less time? Right?
oooshi | 2 hours ago
I am still waiting to see this be discussed on the conservative subreddit. Seems they never wanna have posts discussing their own spending.
Glad-Veterinarian365 | an hour ago
That subreddit is so heavily moderated, that I’m pretty sure it’s an even more twisted lense into true Republican voters’ minds than regular old Reddit is for lefties
LadyEmeraldDeVere | 31 minutes ago
They are not allowed to say or post anything critical of the party or its leaders.
CultOfSensibility | an hour ago
Anyone remember back in the late 80’s/early 90’s when the pentagon was accused of waste like $2k hammers? Well at least there was a good reason; it was cover for a brand new intelligence campus in Northern Virginia. This however is just a pure “eff you” to poor people.
Plastic_Key_4146 | 2 hours ago
Maybe sell some fruit basket stands and buy some air defense munitions. We're done paying for your unjustified, illegal, and offensive war of choice.
437326 | 2 hours ago
Impossible, this Admin has been finding and eliminating more waste and fraud than any other other administration in history!
They’re too busy and successful doing it to be able to document any of it tho ;)
Ok-Appearance-4877 | 2 hours ago
In the meantime, I haven't been able to renew my SNAP after getting laid off because they don't have enough operators to conduct a necessary interview and no physical office in my area to verify my ID.
thecamino | an hour ago
Meanwhile I’m seeing clips from a Michelle Obama interview where she noted they had to pay for all the food they ate at the White House. If she and the kids wanted to fly somewhere without Obama they had to pay for it.
Constant-Plant-9378 | an hour ago
I would love to see President JB Pritzker, the day after he is sworn in, issue an emergency executive order directing his FBI to arrest every one of these corrupt members of Trump's cabinet to be held in jail pending prosecution by his Justice Department, led by Jack Smith, for their wildly outrageous corruption and theft of public funds.
And while awaiting prosecution, all of their assets are frozen pending auditing and liquidation to claw back all of the money they have stolen.
Weskit | an hour ago
How much school lunch “debt” would that money wipe out? Probably all of it. How many textbooks would it buy? How many medical bills? How much housing for unhoused veterans? The list of good it could do is almost endless.
trade-craft | 2 hours ago
They didn't spend "Billions" on fruit baskets and chairs though did they.
They wasted a shit load of money, sure, but this headline is a straight sensationalist lie.
Poon-Conqueror | 2 hours ago
Okay, fuck Hegseth, and with that out of the way, wtf is this garbage?
I don't approve of spending 40m on steaks, lobster, ice cream or other luxuries for the military, but 40m isn't even .1% of 93b. Even if you include the 220m on furniture, that's still not even close to the full tally.
This is as dishonest as the crap about millennials being fiscally irresponsible because they like to drink premium coffee occasionally. Is it something that could be cut to accommodate a more responsible budget? Yes. Is it the cause overarching problem? Fuck no, and it's dishonest to even pretend it is.
Owmuhback | an hour ago
Unfortunately the left is barely any more competent in spotting lies and sensationalism than the right is. It's disheartening. Especially because it's often used as ammo against them. People don't like thinking through things, only black and white strong convictions and emotions with minimal effort.
Dry_Combination4070 | an hour ago
Yeah just because Kristi noem purchased herself 2jets, paid a shell company a couple million, Trump is selling crypto, suing his own government, his kid is meddling in oil just before the war with Iran, Kash Patel is flying around in fbi jets with his girlfriend.
That's just the tip of the iceberg but yeah just because Republicans are blatantly corrupt doesn't mean hegs is.
Why do republican love blatant corruption now?
Owmuhback | an hour ago
I didn't defend any of those things? There's a million horrendous things various members of the administration has done, this just happens to not really be a big one. This is how budgets work in government and in corporate, you use it or lose it. It's stupid, but hard to get around and not really a story here.
BigMeanBalls | an hour ago
Your average redditor is not "the left", maybe liberals at best. Though a moot point for someone going to bat for an administration whose figurehead would be facing double-digit life sentences if the country's laws applied to him.
Owmuhback | an hour ago
I am a democratic socialist (in the U.S. context that is pretty far left) who would like to see the entire administration rot in prison for life and several of them should be tried for treason. Hegseth is an embarrassment and should have been laughed out of the confirmation just because of his blatant white supremacy, violent religious leanings, alcoholism, and complete lack of qualifications. And that is before all the childish, petty, warmongering, murderous, callous actions he's taken since.
I am not going to bat for this administration, I am expressing frustration that the U.S. left is not holding itself to a higher standard with how we react to "news" like this.
robjohnz | 2 hours ago
Worse than Michael Scott going to Burlington Coat Factory. Actually, this amount could have purchased Burlington 4 times at their current market cap and still have 17 billion left to work with.
xanadumuse | 2 hours ago
When I talk to family members about how much tax payer dollars they’re wasting, they become visibly upset and fidgety. It’s like their brain is short circuiting from the mental gymnastics they do hourly to rationalize this bullshit.
Impressive-Bird-6085 | 2 hours ago
Why does this come as no surprise?? Cuts for the U.S. Military War Vets. Cuts for those needing help to buy food. Yet a huge largesse, and a life of immense luxury and extravagance for Trump and his MAGA Cult administration……….
TheCaliforniaOp | an hour ago
What frustrates me is that the money doesn’t make sense anymore. We used to hear about some vast sum attached to some public project and either be intimidated enough to stop asking for it, or a breakdown of the project budget would be published, and we’d all look at it: “Oh. Well. That’s why, then. Gots to get it done anyway.”
Now?!?
“It’s going to cost” —NO— “It already cost this much and it’ll cost a lot more if anyone is petty enough to want to see the books”
And that’s it. So what I’m worried about is that somehow all this money never existed, or did exist but it won’t exist anymore if it’s in somebody’s bank account, just because. Yet we all have to come up with our actual real existing money when our bills are due.
Impressive-Bird-6085 | an hour ago
I agree, completely!
goodstorydan2 | 2 hours ago
Im having trouble solely blaming Hegseth considering this is just how the military does its budgeting. If you spend less than you were given, you lose it the next year. We need to change the system. I had a friend in the air force who was telling about the extremely nice chairs they had in the office because of this problem, and that was years ago.
Pop-Pop68 | an hour ago
Yep! One day a total accounting of just how much he thew away on useless crap will come out and the saddest part is the taxpayers money will just be gone with zero benefit to them. There will be no clawing it back.
BruceStarcrest | an hour ago
I am so tired of these fing people. So glad I’ve done everything I could to get ahead to still be trapped renting with costs still rocketing barely getting by with this going on.
The worst part… not a gd thing will change.
FakePoloManchurian | an hour ago
Seems like a much better use of taxpayer funds that wasting money on PBS and NPR. Let's spend money on things that really matter, like chairs. /s/
garitone | an hour ago
I have a good idea. They can take their own advice and save the country a lot of money at the same time:
Why don't they just have "a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, a corn tortilla, and one other thing?"
Problem solved.
lordnacho666 | 3 hours ago
Not that I like the guy, but doesn't the US military machine need a bunch of stuff, including chairs and lobsters?
You can't say he wasted the money without going into detail about why exactly the spending was unnecessary.
OhItsBeenBroughten | 12 minutes ago
I don’t think the US military machine needs lobsters, no. What kind of question is that?
lordnacho666 | 7 minutes ago
You don't think there's any amount of fancy dining involved in running a military?
OhItsBeenBroughten | 4 minutes ago
I don’t think they need it.
SecureInstruction538 | 2 hours ago
Not just what but where. Did he spend millions on crab for just the Pentagon building or was it spread across a bunch of military installations?