Government Waste

Why the Price of the F-35 Keeps Soaring

By Ciro Scotti

The most costly fighter ever built is getting even more expensive. A new General Accounting Office report says the Pentagon will spend an additional $3.9 billion over the next five years on “...
What a Waste—Senate Health Care Debate Squanders Time and Millions for Nothing

By Rob Garver and Eric Pianin

For Republican leaders in the Senate, watching their first two attempts to pass a health care bill this week fail badly in floor votes must have been extra painful as they plainly knew in advance...
The Pentagon Skips Out on a $10 Billion Debt

By Eric Pianin

By law, the free-spending Defense Department is required to implement a plan to achieve at least $10 billion in administrative cost savings within the next two years. But the Government...
Can Congress Finally Stop Wasting $100 Billion a Year in Erroneous Payments?

By Eric Pianin

In response to repeated prodding by the General Accounting Office and other government watchdogs, the House Budget Committee is calling for creation of a special commission to crack down on...
Homeland Security Did Not Report $3.5 Million Spent on Conferences

By Eric Pianin

The behemoth Department of Homeland Security violated federal rules when they neglected to report nearly two dozen conferences sponsored by the agency in 2014 and 2015 at an overall cost of more than...

The Latest FBI Mess: The $2 Billion Project to Build Its New Headquarters

By Eric Pianin

The FBI’s once imposing fortress-like headquarters in downtown Washington is in shambles today, with netting hanging from the façade to prevent broken concrete from hitting passing tourists. Inside,...
The Navy’s Argument for Building Another $500 Million Combat Ship Doesn’t Hold Water

By Ciro Scotti

Under pressure from the White House, the Navy agreed to add a second Littoral Combat Ship to its 2018 budget despite grave concerns about the capabilities of the vessel. The stated reason was to save...
How a No-Show Worker Scammed the VA Out of $100,000

By Eric Pianin

A former research investigator at a VA health facility in Oklahoma City scammed the government out of more than $100,000 by claiming thousands of hours of work while he was drawing a salary at a...
Ouch! Mylan May Have Overcharged the US More Than $1 Billion for EpiPens

By Rob Garver

The federal government appears to have shelled out more than $1.27 billion in overpayments to the drug company Mylan, which holds the patent on the widely-used EpiPen, an auto-injector for...
How Bad Is Drug Theft at VA Hospitals? Feds Pursue Dozens of New Cases

By Eric Pianin

In the last few months, the VA inspector general’s office opened 36 criminal investigations into alleged drug theft by employees at veterans hospitals, bringing the number of open criminal...

Lawmakers Lash Out at Agencies for Paying $3.1 Billion to Idle Workers

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

The federal government’s practice of placing workers accused of misconduct on paid administrative leave for months or even years at a time has long drawn scrutiny from members of Congress. They say...
Coburn’s 2014 Wastebook: A $25 Billion Taxpayer Loss

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

Over the last five years, Sen. Tom Coburn, the retiring senior Republican Senator from Oklahoma and notorious deficit hawk, has released a massive annual report ripping into the federal government’s...
How the U.S. Wasted $7.6 Billion to Stop Afghan Heroin Production

By Eric Pianin

A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction provides another painful reminder that despite $7.6 billion of counter-narcotics efforts over the past decade, illegal...
Why Your Tax Dollars Are Funding Research for Origami Condoms

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

This week, Sen. Rand Paul mocked the National Institutes of Health director for suggesting that budget cuts have prevented his agency from developing an Ebola vaccine while doling out hundreds of...
Federal Deficit Plunged to $483 Billion in FY2014

By Eric Pianin

The Obama administration confirmed on Wednesday that the government ended fiscal 2014 with a $483 billion budget deficit -- $197 billion less than the previous year’s shortfall and $165 billion less...

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