The Pentagon announced Friday that it had failed its annual audit.
Moreover, this was the seventh consecutive time that it has done so.
The Calvin Coolidge Project explained what that meant.
"The Pentagon cannot account for what it’s $824B budget is spent on," they said.
But fear not!
They have everything under control.
The Defense Department assures us that their books will balance, and everything will be in order soon, according to Michael McCord, Under Secretary of Defense and Chief Financial Officer.
"Momentum is on our side," McCord said, "and throughout the Department there is strong commitment — and belief in our ability — to achieve an unmodified audit opinion."
As a result, "the Department is firmly committed and is taking actions to achieve an unmodified audit opinion on its financial statements by December 31, 2028, as mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024," the Defense Department said in an attached statement.
See? In four more years everything will be hunky-dory and they’ll finally know what they did with their $824 billion budget.
When liberal comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart interviewed Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks over the weekend, even he was appalled.
"It’s a tough argument to make that," Stewart began as Hicks laughed.
He continued, "an $850 billion budget to an organization that can’t pass an audit and tell you where that money went, like, I think most people would consider that somewhere in the realm of waste, fraud, or abuse, because they would wonder why that money isn’t well-accounted for."
Observed Jerry Dunleavy, author of "Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End," "This is the entrenched mentality the next SecDef will face."
And if President-elect Donald Trump has his way, that next secretary of defense will be Pete Hegseth, a 20-year veteran of the Army National Guard — much like Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., now the former Democrat vice-presidential nominee.
One big difference between Hegseth and Walz, however, is that when Walz was called to deploy to a war zone, he resigned from the National Guard.
Hegseth went — twice — once in Iraq and once in Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, Hegseth is now accused of being a white supremacist, according to Tara Copp, Pentagon correspondent for The Associated Press.
She reported that "Pete Hegseth, the Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Defense, was flagged as a possible 'Insider Threat' by a fellow service member due to a tattoo he has that’s associated with white supremacists."
At issue are two tattoos: One saying “Deus Vt,” Latin for “God wills it," and the second a Jerusalem Cross, which is one large cross signifying Christ, surrounded by four small crosses, for the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
So being a religious Christian is now a sign of white supremacy.
Christopher Rufo, author of "America’s Cultural Revolution," threw it right back at Cobb.
"Wow," he replied: "Journalist Tara Copp was flagged as a possible white supremacist because 'AP' could mean 'Aryan Power,' according to a tendentious and partisan distortion of the facts.
"This is seriously concerning, @AP."
Democrats’ real fear may be the general officer review board Trump is planning to establish, with his defense secretary — especially concerning given the "Woke" stance the armed services have taken under the Biden administration.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, gave an example over the weekend.
"I recently spoke with the father of a U.S. Air Force Academy cadet," he said.
"He told me that the Air Force Academy’s official forms refer to him (the cadet’s father) as the cadet’s 'non-birthing parent,' and to his wife (the cadet’s mother) as the cadet’s 'birthing parent.'"
Hegseth’s 3-word reply was, "Not for long."
In addition to his 20 years of service in the National Guard and retiring as a Major, Hegseth earned a master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard, so you would assume he knows how to count well enough to pass a departmental audit if confirmed by the Senate.
But this last presidential election proved that math is hard for Democrats.
The Harris-Watz campaign took in more than $1 billion within three months, an unprecedented figure, but it wasn’t enough. They reportedly ended up $20 million in debt, and are now unable to pay vendors and staffers.
It’s not much to ask. We just want someone who can add and subtract and won’t call Mom the "birthing parent."
Pete Hegseth can do that.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.