Our government acts like they are spending their own money. Instead they are sending us to the poor house.
And now these top Biden officials burn through billions of dollars for this twisted reason.
The Department of Defense went on a massive spending spree in September, racking up nearly $80 billion in expenditures as it raced to exhaust its budget before the end of the fiscal year. The month marked the Pentagon’s biggest single-month spending splurge since the peak of the War on Terror.
A staggering $33.1 billion of this was spent during just the final five business days of September, according to watchdog group Open the Books. For perspective, that five-day sum exceeds the annual military budgets of almost every country on the planet.
Predictably, much of the spending went toward essentials like $3 billion on ammunition and nearly $8 billion on aircraft. However, the Pentagon’s financial records also revealed eyebrow-raising expenditures on luxuries. These included 147 purchases of raw lobster tail, costing $6.1 million, and $16.6 million spent on ribeye steaks.
The watchdog group attributed the spending spree to a “use-it-or-lose-it” mentality pervasive in government budgeting.
The logic is simple yet flawed: agencies must spend every dollar allocated to them, whether necessary or not, to avoid future budget cuts by Congress. This approach turns September, the final month of the fiscal year, into a frenzy of financial activity.
And last year, the spending reached some almost comical extremes. Among the purchases were $113,230 worth of ice cream and $117,787 for fresh doughnuts.
As the Defense Department’s spending habits come under scrutiny, the timing is notable. The report emerged just ahead of confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary.
If confirmed, Hegseth will be inheriting a department with a well-documented penchant for fiscal extravagance.
The biggest beneficiary of the September spending bonanza was Lockheed Martin Corp., which received $10.8 billion — twice as much as runner-up Raytheon Company and about five times the payout to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, the third-largest recipient.
Open the Books highlighted specific examples of questionable spending during the spree. These included:
- A total of $103.7 million on meat, poultry and fish, including the lobster tails, ribeye and $6.4 million on salmon.
- $81.1 million on fruit and vegetables.
- $5.1 million on Apple products.
- $36,000 on footrests.
- $12,480 for “piano tuning.”
On a lighter note, the report did identify at least one relatively minor but notable expense. In September 2023, the Navy shelled out $7,136 to settle a parking ticket at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
While the Pentagon defends its budgeting practices, critics argue that these spending habits epitomize waste and inefficiency in government operations. For taxpayers, the revelations offer a sobering look at where their hard-earned dollars are going.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
