our government gets ripped off
- Posted: 2 years ago
- Tags:government
- 0 comments
*Sigh* I love America, I have never been more patriotic than recent months, but some things occasionally make me cringe. Lately, I have been thinking about how often our government just gets totally ripped off. A great example that I came across today is that we are apparently building 'comfort capsules' for our 4-star generals to ride in when they are flying. This is basically just a really cushy environment including leather and plasma tv screen's, because well, you know, our generals need that stuff. It looks like some people that are not asleep in congress tried to stop this frivolous spending of money, but apparently they just went ahead with the project anyways.
"In all, for the past three years the service has asked to divert $16.2 million to the effort from what the military calls the GWOT, or global war on terrorism."
Now its one thing that we are making the mistake of buying this frivolous stuff in the first place, which I think is a terrible use of my hard earned tax money, but its a totally separate issue that it even costs this much to begin with. The article I read quotes: "Changing the seat color and pockets alone was estimated in a March 12 internal document to cost at least $68,240." What!! You have got to be kidding, right? I wish. I imagine there is a whole plethora of people and business in our great country that could re-upholster 4 chairs for less than $70k! Call me crazy, sure, but I would definitely be willing to take the challenge. It seems like when most people think of selling something to the government it gets blown way out of proportion and the government just ends up paying whatever the said price is. I, for one, would really appreciate it if at a minimum they could at least haggle it down a bit. It makes me sad enough knowing that my contribution to the country this month, has gone to pay for plush environments to support military personnel, but several public school districts have gone to a 4-day education week, because we can't seem to scrape up enough money to pay for the school bus gas money.
I wonder what would happen, if people were allowed to check a checkbox each month, for where their tax money should be spent. Something tells me a lot more of it might be spent on useful things like education, and a lot less might be spent on war. If the IRS implemented that, I would give them major kudos, however, I wonder how much it would cost them to implement.
Read Article at: The Washington Post
