TAX PAYERS MONEY$200 MILLION - How could this be real?????

Submitted by Carolec on June 26, 2008 - 10:20am.

I am new and wanted to share what was on Cspan last night about our militay base in Germany. This project was started in 2003 and was supposed to be completed in 2005. It was supposed to cost $31 million and according to what was said last night the cost can not be figured because they have no way of keeping track but they think it will likely exceed $200 million or more when it is hopefully completed in 2009. Some of the last statements were that the tax payers would have to be the ones to pay. I think this is something every American should know about to help understand why we are in an economic resession and what is really happening to our money. I am for the project but can not comprehend how any people in our government can allow this to happen. Judith G Garber on the committee told the group that she thought the tax payers should know what they are paying for and how much.

Correction to my post : Tax payers money $200 million

Submitted by Carolec on June 26, 2008 - 11:01am.

I am so sorry, but I made a mistake when I posted that it was Judith Garber that told the group that she thought the tax payers should know what they are paying for and how much. It was not her, it was another woman that attended the hearing and I don't know her name. I apologize to Judith Garber also.

Billion-Dollar Babies

Submitted by dinamic on June 26, 2008 - 2:43pm.

The Pentagon not only produces stealth planes, it is, in budgetary terms, a stealth operation. If honestly accounted, the actual Pentagon yearly budget, including all the "military-related" funds salted away elsewhere, is probably now more than $1 trillion a year. http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/89432/

The list goes on and on and most of it is going to corporate America and to the Pentagon or private mercenaries in secret.

The top Pentagon contractors, like death and taxes, almost never change. In 2002, the massive arms dealers Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman ranked one, two, and three among Department of Defense contractors, taking in $17 billion, $16.6 billion, and $8.7 billion. Lockheed, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman did it again in 2003 ($21.9, $17.3, and $11.1 billion); 2004 ($20.7, $17.1, and $11.9 billion); 2005 ($19.4, $18.3, and $13.5 billion); 2006 ($26.6, $20.3, and $16.6 billion); and, not surprisingly, 2007 as well ($27.8, $22.5, and $14.6 billion). Other regulars receiving mega-tax-funded payouts in a similarly clockwork-like manner include defense giants General Dynamics, Raytheon, the British weapons maker BAE Systems, and former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, as well as BP, Shell, and other power players from the military-petroleum complex.

When the government spokespeople speak of not being able to fund SCHIP [State Children's Health Insurance Program ] and most social projects it is because they are using that money/our money to fund every thing from big oil to black projects to secret military bases and the world's largest US Embassy Baghdad

As reported in the Asian Times Online, various representatives of the Bush administration have been saying for some time that the United States has no interest in "permanent" military bases in Iraq. Whew. That's a relief. However, according to an editorial in Saturday's New York Times, Still President Bush is "insisting on keeping more than 50 long-term [military] bases in Iraq."

it's a secret. Shhhhhh!

AND

Details of the secretive U.S.-Iraqi security pact, leaked to the media in the past few days, confirm an agenda that many critics of the Iraq war have been shouting from the rooftops for years.

The neocons in the White House are pushing for permanent occupation of the country and the right to launch pre-emptive military strikes on any country from inside Iraq. Secret Security Pact Will Ensure Permanent Iraq Occupation

These few examples are only the tip of the iceberg. All of this Empire building is costing us some serious money and they aren't going to raise taxes on our corporate friends. Someone has to pay some of the bills some of the time, so government just can't afford to take care of the peasants any more. OK? I am sure that you will understand, after all we are at war.