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We should expect hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful spending at the Department of Defense. It's unacceptable that a full audit won't be completed for four years. The Pentagon needs to be able to pass a budget now, and while the Marine Corps has passed a clean audit for two years, this needs to be department-wide. We need to know exactly where every dollar is going. This is basic accounting, and it's something the Defense Department has lacked. We're committed to fixing this. With America's $37 trillion debt, we must use resources wisely. We welcome partnerships, like with Doge, to streamline processes, cut waste, and ensure every dollar goes to our warfighters. The Defense Department has a huge budget, and responsible spending is crucial.

The Pentagon hides billions of dollars, with no accountability or audits. We've never received a satisfactory explanation. To uncover the truth, someone will likely have to leak information online before being silenced—a scenario I've often predicted.

We've stopped the $8,000,000 in taxpayer subsidies for Politico subscriptions. The team is working to cancel the payments immediately. Large organizations inevitably miss things. Claims of widespread waste and abuse haven't been substantiated with evidence. We haven't seen proof of the alleged misuse of funds.

The federal government uses only one bank account, the treasury general account, to disperse all monies. There is allegedly $500 billion of fraud every year, and hundreds of billions of dollars in improper payments. The consolidated financial report produced by the treasury cannot pass an audit due to material weakness. Until recently, the federal government could not pass an audit because it lacked necessary payment information, such as payment codes, explanations, and contact information. Previously, over 580 agencies could make payments without verification, and the treasury would send them out as fast as possible. This is likened to a household where many people can access the bank account and disperse funds without justification or verification.

The speaker asked Chat GPT how much money the Pentagon had unaccounted for in its last audit. Chat GPT initially stated the Pentagon had about $220 billion in assets. The speaker thought the figure was closer to $1.5 trillion and corrected Chat GPT. Chat GPT responded that the speaker was correct and that in its most recent audit, the Pentagon could not account for $1.5 trillion in assets. The speaker then prompted Chat GPT to put $1.5 trillion into perspective. Chat GPT stated that if you spent $1 million every day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent $1.5 trillion, and it would take over 4,100 years to reach that amount. The speaker emphasizes that $1.5 trillion is just the amount of money that is unaccounted for.

Pentagon's Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, declared war on the Pentagon bureaucracy, stating that wasted money poses a serious threat. However, after the events of 9/11, the focus shifted to funding the war on terrorism, and the issue of wasteful spending was forgotten. The military already struggles to account for 25% of its expenses, which amounts to $2.3 trillion. A whistleblower, Jim Minery, discovered $1 million missing from a defense agency's balance sheets but faced resistance when trying to investigate. The Pentagon's inspector general confirmed some of Minery's allegations but couldn't prove manipulation of financial statements. The problem of accounting games and cooked books persists, according to longtime Pentagon employee, c Spinney. Without proper oversight, billions of dollars could be saved.

Speakers analyze a Treasury/GAO annual report, focusing on page 215 and the independent auditor's report from the US Government Accountability Office. They quote that "for twenty eight consecutive years now, the Government Accountability Office has been disclaiming opinions about all of this information" and that "we were not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion." They highlight "material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work" and that "the federal government is not able to demonstrate the reliability of significant portions of the accompanying accrual based consolidated financial statements." They note weaknesses across DoD, SBA, Education, and environmental liabilities, and that the American Rescue Plan Act 2021 program was "not adequately accounted for." The document also presents "Social Security and Medicare sensitivity analysis" with a "low cost alternative" described as "slower improvement in mortality, beneficiaries die younger." The speakers argue the government's size and complexity impede accountability, that the Federal Reserve is not a government agency, and advocate a "trust game" and a "debt jubilee" to restart.

Governments lack the incentive to adapt and improve because they can't fail like private sector organizations. The technology revolution has transformed private sector organizations, but government organizations have not fully adapted. Government financial systems are decades old. It is claimed that $2.3 trillion in transactions cannot be tracked. Information cannot be shared within a single building because it's stored on dozens of different, inaccessible, and incompatible technological systems.

USAID has been unresponsive and misaligned with U.S. foreign policy, despite its role in spending taxpayer dollars. Historically, it has operated independently, ignoring directives from the State Department and failing to provide transparency about its programs and funding. This lack of cooperation has hindered effective oversight and alignment with national interests. The goal is to ensure that every dollar spent abroad supports U.S. interests, rather than acting as a global charity. Reform efforts have been ongoing for decades, but USAID has resisted change. Moving forward, it is essential that taxpayer money is used to further U.S. national interests, and this lack of accountability will no longer be tolerated.

Twitter, at least, was breaking even and passing audits. The federal government, however, is losing trillions annually and failing its audits. Senator Collins mentioned giving the Navy billions for submarines, only to find out the money disappeared without any new submarines. This level of waste is enabled because they're accustomed to operating this way without accountability. As Milton Friedman said, money is most poorly spent when you're spending someone else's money on people you don't know, which perfectly describes the federal government's situation.

There's significant waste, fraud, and abuse in the system, but audits are different. An audit assesses whether we know what was delivered and where it is, not necessarily indicating fraud. The inability to pass an audit suggests poor inventory management, not that funds were misused. However, if a billion-dollar budget can't account for its spending, it raises concerns about responsibility and waste. Observing food insecurity among military personnel despite a massive budget feels like corruption. It's troubling that, after years of war, the Pentagon received a significant budget increase while basic services struggle. This disconnect between funding and the reality faced by service members is alarming, and questioning it shouldn't be dismissed as ignorance about audits.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war on the Pentagon bureaucracy, stating that wasted money poses a serious threat. However, after the events of 9/11, the focus shifted to funding the war on terrorism, and the war on waste was forgotten. The Pentagon cannot account for 25% of its spending, which amounts to $2.3 trillion. One whistleblower, Jim Minery, discovered $1 million missing from a defense agency's balance sheets but faced resistance when trying to investigate. The Pentagon's inspector general partially substantiated the allegations but couldn't prove manipulation of financial statements. Franklin C. Spinney, a Pentagon employee, exposed accounting games 20 years ago and believes the problem has worsened. Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan confirms that the books are routinely cooked year after year.

The Pentagon hides billions of dollars, with no accountability or audits. We need transparency. The only way to uncover the truth might be if someone leaks information online before mysteriously dying.

Donald Trump suggested Elon Musk audit the federal government. One speaker believes AI can democratize government and increase transparency, or enslave citizens to the government and intelligence agencies, and that Musk understands this best. The Pentagon has failed every audit for the last 20 years and lost $4.3 trillion in the last audit. This money was primarily lost on equipment purchases whose locations are unknown, forcing the Pentagon to repurchase them. These problems are solvable with AI, which could track stockpiles and warehouses to identify the location of equipment.

The US Treasury Department has been flagged for potential waste and abuse of taxpayer funds, with about 23% of entitlements, roughly $50 billion annually, going to recipients without known Social Security numbers or IDs. This equates to about a billion dollars a week in potential fraud. Adding to the concern, the Treasury Department hasn't been keeping itemized records of their payouts, making it impossible to track where the money is actually going. Fortunately, an agreement has been made where the Treasury Department will start itemizing all payments, detailing where the money is going and to whom. It's unbelievable that the Treasury hasn't had to provide accountability for where taxpayer money is being spent, especially when individual taxpayers are held to a much higher standard.

Donald Trump suggested Elon Musk audit the federal government. One speaker believes AI can democratize government and increase transparency, but could also enslave citizens to the government and intelligence agencies. They feel Musk understands this best and could deploy AI effectively. The Pentagon has failed every audit for the last 20 years and lost $4.3 trillion in the last audit, mostly due to being unable to locate purchased equipment. AI could fix these problems by tracking stockpiles and warehouses to eliminate government waste.

In 1994, the New York Fed and the Federal Reserve bought shares in the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). The BIS is described as the central bank of central banks in Sweden/Switzerland, said to operate above the law, with sovereign immunity, the ability to receive and hold money secretly, and to keep money on its balance sheet secretly. The Fed’s purchase allegedly made their relationship with the BIS closer. In 1995, a budget deal “crashed and burned,” and in October there was a claim from the president of the largest pension fund that “they, whoever they are, have given up on the country and moving all the money out starting in the fall.” It was around October 1997 that money purportedly began to go missing from HUD and the Department of Defense. The speaker asserts that from 1998 to 2015, $20,000,000,000,000 was missing from COD and $1,000,000,000,000 missing from HUD. With money going missing, the speaker describes the onset of the “great poisoning.” The argument continues that the next month after the budget deal collapse, OxyContin was approved, HUD predatory lending began, pill mills started, and targeting of low-income neighborhoods intensified, with roundups from the private prison movement. The speaker notes undocumentable adjustments rising sharply. By 09:11, the speaker claims, a reporter had been covering missing money and a large spread was planned for Insight magazine about $3,300,000,000,000 missing, demanding accountability and identifying which private corporations and banks ran the payment systems. The story was expected to run on 09/15/2001. On 09/10/2001, Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference at the Department of Defense stating that the DoD was missing $2.3 trillion (or $3 trillion, depending on version). The next day, 9/11 occurred. James Corbett later released a video, “Nine Eleven Trillions,” describing how offices blown up at the Pentagon and World Trade Center related to securities and financial operations connected to the missing money. The speaker asserts that the Pentagon office blown up housed the Office of Naval Intelligence Research Group investigating the missing money. The Patriot Act followed, DoD received large appropriations, and attention to missing money diminished. Fast forward to 2015, the financials allegedly showed the greatest missing money in one year: the DoD was missing $6.5 trillion in that year. Dr. Mark Skidmore, a budgeting expert at Michigan State University, investigated, and, after reviewing DoD financials, confirmed substantial undocumentable adjustments. He contacted the speaker to help conduct a complete survey of all financial statements from fiscal 1997 to 2015. The survey yielded figures increasing from $12 trillion to $21 trillion missing. When Skidmore published his 2017 report (at missingmoney.solari.com), it was found that the amount missing from the U.S. Treasury matched the total outstanding debt of the United States on the books—$21 trillion. Authorities reportedly pressed the DoD to produce audited financial statements; DoD refused. The Kavanaugh hearings are cited as the moment when the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASB) Statement 56 was issued, allowing the government to keep books secret as a matter of administrative policy, extending to private companies and banks doing business with the government. The result, according to the speaker, is that much of the disclosure in the U.S. securities market is meaningless due to government secrecy. The speaker notes that COVID-19 operations could not have happened without FASB 56, claiming it enabled access to unlimited secret money. A quoted anecdote is that one month after FASB 56 passed, Moderna reportedly raised $500,000,000.

Failing to account for a billion-dollar budget feels like waste to me. It's concerning when an organization can't track its spending, especially a large one like the Department of Defense with its $850 billion budget. The inability to pass an audit doesn't automatically equal fraud, but it raises serious questions. The lack of clear accounting, combined with issues like food insecurity on military bases and the significant increase in the Pentagon budget after twenty years of war, leads many to perceive corruption. Seeing disparities between massive military spending and struggles to provide basic services to those in need is jarring. It raises questions about resource allocation and priorities. I understand the technicalities of audits, but as a citizen, the lack of accountability is concerning.

The Department of Defense is terminating over $580 million in contracts and grants that do not align with current priorities. This action aims to redirect funds to better support warfighters. Cancellations include an HR software effort that ran $280 million over budget and took eight years instead of one. Also cut are $360 million in DOD grants, including $6 million for decarbonizing emissions from Navy ships, $5.2 million for diversifying Navy engagement with underrepresented BIPOC students, and $9 million for equitable AI and machine learning models, as opposed to lethal models. Additionally, $30 million in contracts with Gartner and McKinsey for IT purchasing of unused licenses are being terminated. These cuts bring the total to $800 million in wasteful spending canceled in recent weeks.

Failing to account for $850 billion in the DOD budget is concerning. While a failed audit doesn't automatically mean waste, fraud, or abuse, it raises questions about accountability and responsible spending. The inability to track how this money was spent leads to justifiable concerns, especially when considering issues like food insecurity on military bases. The contrast between a massive military budget and struggles to provide basic services highlights a disconnect for many. Seeing a $50 billion increase in the Pentagon budget after twenty years of war, while service members rely on food stamps, fuels perceptions of corruption. This isn't about personal attacks, but about the disconnect between massive spending and the realities faced by those in the military.

The latest financial audit of the Pentagon highlights persistent accounting and asset-tracking problems for the Department of Defense. Despite controlling nearly $4,650,000,000,000 in assets, the department once again could not fully account for where its money, equipment, and resources go. Auditors issued a disclaimer of opinion, meaning the financial records were so incomplete that they couldn't even judge their accuracy. This marks the eighth consecutive year in which the department has failed to achieve a clean audit result. The audit identified 26 major weaknesses, including missing inventory tracking and outdated accounting systems. As a result, billions worth of equipment, weapons, and military supplies remain difficult to trace across U.S. bases worldwide. These gaps indicate that substantial portions of the department’s physical and financial assets cannot be confidently accounted for within the current record-keeping and oversight frameworks. Officials stressed that progress is being made, noting that several smaller defense agencies have passed their audits. However, the department as a whole has never received a clean result since audits began in 2018, underscoring a persistent, systemic challenge rather than isolated incidents. While some sub-agencies have achieved compliance, the overarching department still relies on processes and controls that do not meet the standards required for a complete and verifiable financial statement. Critics point to the broader context, arguing that the United States continues to approve record defense budgets while failing basic transparency tests. The continued lack of a consolidated, auditable financial picture for such a large and critical sector raises questions about how funds, equipment, and resources are allocated, tracked, and reported at the national level. In response, Pentagon leaders have stated a goal of finally passing a clean audit by 2028, signaling an intent to address the identified weaknesses and achieve full financial accountability within the stated timeframe. The tension between ongoing budgetary approvals and progress toward comprehensive audit compliance remains a central theme of the discussion surrounding the department’s financial management.

If I give an organization a billion dollars, I need to know where it went. Otherwise, that's wasteful and irresponsible. If you can't account for it, what am I supposed to think? Now, I'm not saying anyone is directly responsible for this. However, giving an $850 billion budget to an organization that can't pass an audit and explain where the money went seems like waste, fraud, or abuse to most people. They would naturally wonder why the money isn't properly accounted for.

USAID has been unresponsive and often operates independently of U.S. foreign policy, which is concerning given that it uses taxpayer dollars. There is a need for alignment between USAID's programs and the national interest, as outlined by the State Department and the National Security Council. Despite attempts to reform the agency over the past few decades, it continues to resist cooperation and transparency regarding funding and program details. This lack of accountability cannot persist, and it is essential that taxpayer money is used to support U.S. national interests. The ongoing frustration with USAID's operations has spanned multiple administrations and must be addressed.

Corruption is rampant, with reports of ministers hiding millions in cash. The U.S. has sent over $250 billion to these corrupt entities, while the Pentagon has lost a staggering amount without accountability. If an individual misplaces a small sum, they face audits, yet the Pentagon's losses go unchecked. This situation highlights the absurdity of the system. Defense contractors, like Raytheon, benefit from ongoing military contracts, ensuring their board members remain in power. Generals often transition to lucrative positions in these companies after retirement, perpetuating a cycle of profit from war. This dynamic raises questions about the integrity of leadership and the consequences for the public. Ultimately, the system's flaws could lead to its downfall.

There's a new report out from the Defense IG stating that American defense officials didn't fully account for nearly 40,000 weapons that the U.S. provided to Ukraine. These are sensitive materials, small enough to be bartered or put on the black market. I'd refer you to the Defense Department for a more detailed reaction. Speaking broadly, we've been interested in improving accountability over the end use of the material provided to Ukraine for many months now. We've discussed this with our Ukrainian partners, and they share our concerns about accountability.