Dr. Mercola December 14 2006 2,337 views
This CBS news segment shows the Pentagon is unable to keep track of 25 percent of the money it spends, or about $2.3 trillion a year. No one knows what this money has been spent on; there are no records of it.
Despite this, defense spending has continually increased over the past few years, and few attempts have been made to ascertain where the "missing" money is, and accurate accounting alone could be used to reduce the military budget.
In all, $2.3 trillion comes to about $8,000 for every man, woman and child living in America.
This kind of government waste is not an isolated phenomenon. It is one of the reasons why, for example, our health care system is the most expensive in the world.
As of this year, the United States is now spending $2.2 trillion for "health care," or more than 16 percent of the nation's gross domestic product annually. But even this astronomical sum has been exceeded by the amount our military loses track of annually. Not spends -- that's a much, much higher number -- but loses.
Incidentally, government actuaries predict health care spending is on track to increase nearly a third by 2011, to nearly $3 trillion. You can do your part to help avert that disaster in the making by taking better responsibility for your own health.
On Vital Votes, Bryan from Austin, Texas comments on ways all of this wasted money could have been better spent:
"This is appalling! I bet much of the health care money is wasted too. Especially on band-aid drugs that lead to more drugs and surgery!"I'm in the middle of reading Anthony Colpo's 'The Great Cholesterol Con' , which is a well written, very well researched, and entertaining book. It greatly re-enforces my disbelief in our wrecked medical system. "I quit taking Lipitor back in January, thank goodness (after reading about how bad it was on Dr Mercola's and other web sites) ... Too bad we can't take even a fraction of the wasted government money and spend it on real health and diet studies, independent of influence from conflicting business interests and corrupt agencies like the FDA and USDA."
"This is appalling! I bet much of the health care money is wasted too. Especially on band-aid drugs that lead to more drugs and surgery!"I'm in the middle of reading Anthony Colpo's 'The Great Cholesterol Con' , which is a well written, very well researched, and entertaining book. It greatly re-enforces my disbelief in our wrecked medical system.
"I quit taking Lipitor back in January, thank goodness (after reading about how bad it was on Dr Mercola's and other web sites) ... Too bad we can't take even a fraction of the wasted government money and spend it on real health and diet studies, independent of influence from conflicting business interests and corrupt agencies like the FDA and USDA."
Other responses to this article can be viewed at Vital Votes, and you can add your own thoughts or vote on comments by first registering at Vital Votes.
How depressing to hear this when I was levied by the IRS this year and I cannot even afford my home anymore. Why doesn't somebody do something? How can Americans let this corruption continue?