Are United States taxpayers blind? Or do they really care? Are we afraid of government spending?

Question

WASHINGTON - About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk. .The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done."There is no accountability," said David M. Walker, who heads the auditing arm of Congress. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."Senate Democrats said recently cited cases of waste were "outrageous rip-offs of the American taxpayer" and introduced legislation...(see more following BEFORE you answer)

Thursday to stiffen punishment for war profiteers and cut down on cronyism in contracting.Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services company once headed by Vice President **** Cheney.
House committee memorandum analyzing Iraq contracting costs:


(See also :
http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070215105317-73621.pdf

"This is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history. It has engaged in extraordinarily irresponsible policies not only in foreign and economic but also in social and environmental policy. This is not normal government policy. ...this is a form of looting." - George A. Akerlof, 2001 Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics referring to the Administration of George W. Bush

the reins of office to Bill Clinton by popular mandate, George the First and his immediate predecessor had plunged our nation into a $300 billion annual budget deficit. If you find that difficult to swallow, just check the facts. I recommend the American Association for the Advancement of Science's web site. Science, being knowledge-based, generally feels the pinch of ignorance first. So the AAAS put together some easy to understand graphs gleaned from the not-so-easy-to-understand federal record.2

Fortunately, during Clinton's ensuing eight-year tenure, we not only climbed out of that $300 billion black hole, but also accrued a $300 billion surplus.2 Through a fiscal discipline (somehow attributed to Ronald Reagan by radio talk show hosts wiser than I) we saw a $600 billion dollar gain in the public coffers in eight years.2 Income outpaced spending. The Clinton administration returned billions to the treas
ury.

But let's call the Clinton administration's practice better than spending it all. Then, while imposing an 8% tax increase as compared to the 14% aggregate increase of its immediate fiscally conservative predecessors, the reviled Clinton people still found enough cash to run the government.2 That's effectively cheaper. In turn it allowed them to pay down the enormous deficit, build an equally enormous surplus, and still set aside enough cash to build all those smarter weapons today's dumber leaders seem to so enjoy using. Smarter, better, cheaper. See? Turning Japanese, I think

Answer 1

...To say nothing of the billions (yes, with a "B") sent to Iraq on pallets....

I will say one thing, I care!! I am outraged by this bleeding of America. I hope and pray that someone can stop this ridiculous spending overseas and put some of our hard-earned money to work for us, the US citizens!!

How can anyone be upset about the mere millions spent on "welfare" programs in this country when we take so much better care of other countries and/or the already richer-than-God , than we do of our own people who have fallen on hard times?? (Much of the time the "hard times" are due to moves made by our own government.)

Answer 2

Although this is outrageous, it has happened before & will continue to happen. Congress controls the money spent, there have been Democrats in both houses for many years, they must have know this was happening, why wait until now to disclose this information? Although Democrats were the minority, they still had a mouth & access to the media, they kept their mouths closed while this was going on, I do not think that these disclosures, at this time, are saying anything too positive about the Democrats.

Answer 3

Some are.
Yes.
No.

If the Republics had maintained control of Congress in November, we would still be in the dark about this waste and fraud.

Vote the rest of them out in 2008.

Answer 4

give me a break! government have been doing the same thing with our money for years to come. unfortunately what can we do? these are the same old sleezebags that keep running for office

Answer 5

Yes I am a tax payer and I am blind. Please send .67 cents to me so I can feed my seeing eye cat.

Writer you forgot how much money Clinton and Company wasted while he was in office and he didn't see a hanging.

Answer 6

Cons will support 400 billion for an unwinnable war, Iraq social programs and call it "pratiotic" but call 2 billion a year for American welfare "socialism and anti-American"

Answer 7

I think Bush has instilled enough fear into the general populace the majority of people are to afraid to say anything about it...or just feel they can't do anything about it anyway..Which in reality is true.

Answer 8

We are used to subsidizing all the pork projects for years.

Answer 9

American corruption at it's finest!!!!!

Oh say can you see......!!!!!

Answer 10

what's the question again?