That’s our affordable healthcare right there. All the money for affordable healthcare is spread across a million other bags just like that one.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall suffered an awkward moment in Congress as he was stumped over a question about military overspending.
The military leader was questioned by Florida Congressman Mike Waltz over the ‘exorbitant’ amounts spent on regular inexpensive items, using a bag of bushings as an example.
Branding the cost ‘exorbitant’, Waltz noted that the Department of Defense sources all commercial parts directly from original equipment manufacturers, meaning they should be cheaper than off-the-shelf items.
Alongside ending DEI, Waltz also lobbied against critical race theory being taught in military academies, and hoped to launch an investigation into the effect of Covid-19 vaccines on troops.
‘Under the Biden Administration, the Pentagon has diverted its focus from lethality and have instead pushed initiatives that have politicized our warfighting ranks and harmed our military readiness,’ Waltz said at the time.
'Our military faces the worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam War because young Americans don’t want to join what was once a trusted institution that has become overly politicized and hyper-focused on DEI initiatives.
The original article contains 619 words, the summary contains 173 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I’m assuming people are downvoting this because it’s a post on the conservative board about a Florida Republican but the dude is 100% right and all that wasted spending should be going to services for all Americans, not just inflating the bank accounts of the CEOs who run the defense industry.
Basically everything sold to the military is marked up to an insane degree and not because it’s held to some higher standard. No, the produce military grade materials…and military grade means “good enough,” not top-of-the-line. As Waltz showed, the same shit can be purchased at Lowe’s for comparatively nothing.
I’m not a conservative but I’m not gonna let that stop me from siding with one on this issue. That’s our tax dollars going straight into the pockets of the filthy rich.
It’s because the vendor and product are “certified” by whatever bullshit process as part of the contract. It’s even worse with proprietary stuff because you can’t even say “there’s no way” to the little closed computer box that costs tens of thousands because you can’t pick that up at Lowes.
So yeah, rare conservative w and I’ll let them have it, as a treat.
A long time ago I worked for a company that made computers. They explained why government contracts were so profitable. In the days they’d sell a 486/66 computer spec. The government would agree to those terms for 3 or 5 years.
The first batch you lost money on but over time you made a lot of profit. In 3 years the government was paying the same cost but your cost was 1/4.
My favorite example is silver paint, silver paint is used on stealth aircraft it price was $300 a gallon commercially, the military paid $3,000 a gallon for the same paint from the same supplier.
A 10x markup sounds accurate based on what I know about other costs. My friend’s dad runs a business that mostly hires veterans. That got him contract work for the government (not defense, keeping it vague on purpose) and he blew my mind when he told me the hourly rate they could get away with charging
The hourly rates include all the overhead and benefits. A 3-4x rate is common and aligns with costs in the private sector. An electronics lab employee is going to have a much higher overhead rate if they work in something like a clean room or with expensive equipment their rates can be in the 5-8x range.
As the guy in question said, “it’s the same exact thing we do for Amazon but 6 times the price”
No clean room or special equipment as they’re buying labor, not electronics
Government accounting is all weird. Sometimes they’ll assign a percentage to a part. They then take then total including development cost and distribute on percentage. So a toilet may show up as 10k but really they paid 50 dollars for it. It’s just how it’s done in accounting.
I’m pro-military but anti-waste.
And you’re correct. Military grade just means it hit the specs in the contract. Often it’s crap nobody else needs or cares about.
If the story is true, the price difference is astounding.
Those specs are very important though. It’s not just something like “gun must fire”. It’s more like “gun must fire in humid conditions while 2% contaminated with mud, must fire 99.9% of the time, and must last 90,000 rounds before replacement is considered”. Military spec doesn’t usually have bells and whistles, but what it does have is durability and reliability.