More Than One Trillion Dollars in Defense Spending Is Unaccounted For

image
Published: 15 Jul, 2013
1 min read

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has uncovered trillions of taxpayer dollars remain unaccounted for. The Department of Defense has repeatedly received failing grades in federal accounting transparency and accountability. Likewise, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Agriculture's Forestry Service, and the IRS also failed the GAO's assessments.

In 2003, Inspector General to the Department of Defense revealed that $1 trillion had essentially disappeared along with 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missiles. Oops!

The United States' ventures in Afghanistan and Iraq have contributed significantly to the trillions of missing and unaccounted for taxpayer dollars. Twenty billion dollars were shipped to help support the reconstruction of Iraq, most of it was never seen again. Waste and fraud on the part of war contractors has cost up to $60 billion in the span of 2002 to 2011.

Article 1, Section 9 of the United States Constitution reads:

"No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."

At what point does the disparity of missing taxpayer funds violate Section 9?

government-accounting

Source: MastersInAccounting.org

You Might Also Like

Trump sitting in the oval office with a piece of paper with a cannabis leaf on his desk.
Is Trump About to Outflank Democrats on Cannabis? Progressives Sound the Alarm
As President Donald Trump signals renewed interest in reclassifying cannabis from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III, a policy goal long championed by liberals and libertarians, the reaction among some partisan progressive advocates is not celebration, but concern....
08 Dec, 2025
-
5 min read
Malibu, California.
From the Palisades to Simi Valley, Independent Voters Poised to Decide the Fight to Replace Jacqui Irwin
The coastline that defines California’s mythology begins here. From Malibu’s winding cliffs to the leafy streets of Brentwood and Bel Air, through Topanga Canyon and into the valleys of Calabasas, Agoura Hills, and Thousand Oaks, the 42nd Assembly District holds some of the most photographed, most coveted, and most challenged terrain in the state. ...
10 Dec, 2025
-
6 min read
Ranked choice voting
Ranked Choice for Every Voter? New Bill Would Transform Every Congressional Election by 2030
As voters brace for what is expected to be a chaotic and divisive midterm election cycle, U.S. Representatives Jamie Raskin (Md.), Don Beyer (Va.), and U.S. Senator Peter Welch (Vt.) have re-introduced legislation that would require ranked choice voting (RCV) for all congressional primaries and general elections beginning in 2030....
10 Dec, 2025
-
3 min read