The Pentagon and Its ‘Laser Focus’
You have no doubt been breathlessly awaiting my update on my Pentagon article concerning their F-35 debacle (a disastrous or embarrassing failure).
No problem—embarrassing failures are Pentagon specialties
Our Pentagon knows no shame, having allocated (thus far) $1 trillion on the F-35 and settling for a plane no one can afford to fly. What the hell, a trillion is just a number for an agency that simply can’t account for $35 trillion in its most recent failed audit. The Pentagon made $35 trillion in accounting adjustments last year alone -- a total that’s larger than the entire U.S. economy and underscores the Defense Department’s continuing difficulty in balancing its books. That's quite an adjustment and a stretch as an admission, even for them. The latest estimate is up from $30.7 trillion in 2018 and $29 trillion in 2017, the first year adjustments were tracked in a concerted way, according to Pentagon figures and a lawmaker who’s pursued the accounting morass. Additionally, in t…