DOGE

[beej]

I can get behind a lot of what Ro Khanna is saying here. I really hope, but have tempered expectations, that democrats and republicans can come together and remove waste from the Government. I wish he hadn't singled out not touching CFPB. I think that there is waste in every single dept that can be rooted out and eliminated. There is definite truth to what he said about the consolidation of Defense contractors. It would be good for manufacturing shops and the Government if that consolidation through mergers had never happened.


https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ro-khanna-doge-spending-musk-ramaswamy-rcna182644

By Rep. Ro Khanna, representative for California's 17th congressional district

The U.S. defense budget is approaching $1 trillion. About half is going to defense contractors, who have a history of overcharging the Pentagon and fleecing American taxpayers. Raytheon recently agreed to pay $950 million to resolve investigations concerning defective pricing, foreign bribery and export control schemes. The public is tired of this waste and abuse.

I want the U.S. to have the greatest military in the world and the resources to counter increasingly sophisticated threats from our adversaries, but we need a more sensible approach. That is why I have been the only member on the House Armed Services Committee to vote against the bloated defense budget.

The Air Force overpaid Boeing $1 million for 12 different spare parts for the C-17 Cargo Aircraft.

And that is why I look forward to working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce waste and fraud at the Pentagon, while strongly opposing any cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. There are several areas of waste and abuse that I hope DOGE will address.

As a starter, consolidation in the defense industry has allowed companies to drive up prices. When I was a freshman member of Congress, I led an investigation on the House Oversight Committee into the defense contractor TransDigm, which through mergers had acquired exclusive rights to sole-source aircraft parts. A report from the Defense Department's inspector general revealed the company had exploited the American people by overcharging over 4,000 percent on those sole-source parts. In the end, TransDigm returned $16.1 million to the Pentagon. Equally outrageous, a "60 Minutes" report found that the price of stinger missiles has increased from $25,000 in 1991 to $480,000 today. One reason is that Raytheon became the sole supplier and can drive up costs.

[MIL-TFP-41]

The waste I have seen even in my small corner of the world is unbelievable. A few years back we were making some parts for testing hypersonic shiz for the DOD. The parts were rather large chunks of copper, each weighing in around 500-1000lbs. There were maybe 15 of those blocks.

The company we were doing the work for shipped the material 2nd day air. I asked the engineer why they expedited shipping as we were not scheduled to start on them for a month. His response "I woulda shipped them next day if I could of. Its a cost plus program."

So during cost plus, its pretty much a no-bid project...it costs what it cost plus 25%. The more you can rack up costs, the more money you make. So ship that shit the most expensive method, you can show a receipt for the shipping cost, get paid for that, then get another 25% on top of that. In my previous gig in NY, they lived by cost plus. Guys were working 10 hour days, 7 days a week, even tho Sunday the machines were not under power. However the company recovered their wages, plus 25%.

[RobertELee]

The waste I have seen even in my small corner of the world is unbelievable. A few years back we were making some parts for testing hypersonic shiz for the DOD. The parts were rather large chunks of copper, each weighing in around 500-1000lbs. There were maybe 15 of those blocks.

The company we were doing the work for shipped the material 2nd day air. I asked the engineer why they expedited shipping as we were not scheduled to start on them for a month. His response "I woulda shipped them next day if I could of. Its a cost plus program."

So during cost plus, its pretty much a no-bid project...it costs what it cost plus 25%. The more you can rack up costs, the more money you make. So ship that shit the most expensive method, you can show a receipt for the shipping cost, get paid for that, then get another 25% on top of that. In my previous gig in NY, they lived by cost plus. Guys were working 10 hour days, 7 days a week, even tho Sunday the machines were not under power. However the company recovered their wages, plus 25%.

I've seen a lot of that as well. It is infuriating. A buddy of mine was a steelworker building bridges, they had a large bridge that fell under that and the PM overbought EVERYTHING. So instead of say 5 pallets of forming plywood(expensive stuff) they bought 10. 6 semi loads of rebar they bought 12. Etc. And to top it off, they "needed" to use it. So to get through it if they needed a piece of plywood that was 8"x36" they cut the piece off and threw the rest in the dumpster, if they needed a 40 pieces of rebar at 2' they cut 40 sticks of rebar and rest went in the dumpster, etc. and that was for EVERYTHING.

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Our city has been heavy on transit construction the past few years decade. Huge investigation a year or two ago about being behind schedule and fraudulently over-budget, but the dumb stuff you hear about on the ground is still happening. Buddy guy came over this summer and said "You guys want some trees and bushes? They bought a few thousand extra and we're burying them in the ditches."