U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds

Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by toomuchtodo on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:39PM (#12322370)

It's not though; it's still a poor way to spend taxpayer dollars with entitlement liabilities accumulating, that are unfunded, while we continue to poor money into military waste, regardless of the percentage of GDP.

EDIT: I believe using percent of GDP is a poor measure.

Give me a percentage of your take home pay. Let me burn it in front of you in a dumpster. No worries! Its a small part of your take home pay!

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by Viper007Bond on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:47PM (#12322457)

I wasn't commenting whether it's right or wrong to be spending that much, merely that if one is going to do a comparison, it should not be misleading.

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by maxerickson on Friday August 19, 2016 @03:00PM (#12322590)

The absolute spending numbers will translate into capabilities though.

For instance, the US maintains about 1/2 of active aircraft carriers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_in_s...

I guess the strategic problems with aircraft carriers vs missiles make them a less compelling example of capabilities, but they are a nice illustration of the spending gap.

Later: 1/2 maybe isn't the best choice for a number there, as it includes some smaller carriers that mostly support VTOL craft. On the other side of it, the US super carriers carry a lot more planes. If the next generation planes come through, the smaller US carriers do end up comparing reasonably well to the other small carriers.

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by monkmartinez on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:56PM (#12322543)

We already have a portion of our take home pay burned in front of us. Do you see that Medicare and Social Security deduction on your pay stub? Yeah......

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by zeveb on Friday August 19, 2016 @03:46PM (#12322940)

I wonder if all the folks downvoting you honestly believe that they will see a single penny of the Social Security they've been paying all these years?

At least the military budget is a) constitutional b) a reasonable expenditure for a government (as opposed to a mutual-aid society).

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by Frondo on Friday August 19, 2016 @07:29PM (#12324236)

Of course you won't see a single penny that you put in, because that's not how Social Security works.

When us younger Americans start drawing our Social Security, it'll be that era's young whose pennies we're drawing.

Social security isn't "you pay in, you get back out what you put in" it's "you pay in for today's olds, and when you're old, young people pay in for you".

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by sean2 on Friday August 19, 2016 @07:02PM (#12324136)

I didn't actually down vote, but yes, I expect to see money from social security and Medicaid. I also see my parents retiring and using the money I'm contributing right now. I really don't feel like my money is being lit on fire in this case and he didn't make any argument to convince me I should.

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by toomuchtodo on Friday August 19, 2016 @03:01PM (#12322601)

That's called "paying for civilization" versus "lets bomb another 100k innocent civilians with precision guided munitions".

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Re:U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, au... by monkmartinez on Friday August 19, 2016 @03:13PM (#12322696)

Hard to argue with that logic... wow.

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