We should subtract from the military’s budget anything they can’t explain on an audit.
Different social class different rules
Submitted 6 months ago by STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world to aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/bb01c3dc-7be4-4a98-b609-b3a47cfcc28b.jpeg
Comments
rubythulhu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 6 months ago
“Why do we have to explain a $880,000 missile that bombed a villiage full of brown people? Or a $72,000 drone made out of consumer parts but the company is owned by my cousin?”
gardylou@lemmy.world 6 months ago
That ‘we don’t know where 2 trillion went’ is a myth–that number represents accounting reconciliations between their myriad of different archaic and highly secured systems. It doesn’t mean that actual resources are missing or can’t be accounted for.
maryjayjay@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I remember reports of literal pallets of cash going missing during desert storm
diffcalculus@lemmy.world 6 months ago
“missing”
ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Yeah that money came from Iraqi oil sales. And seems to have likely gone to (mostly) Iraqi contractors and Iraq government. It was literally their money going back to them. The accounting was not well documented. But once again, the money isn’t missing. And it definitely wasn’t money collected by the IRS from taxpayers.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
It’s an infestation of unconnected dots that could hide countless incidents of corruption. Were we to connect them all and compute the sum of adjustments, the discrepancy could be smaller or greater, exponentially.
The problem is our government favors the DoD like a prodigal son and is not eager to facilitate an audit that might reveal trillions in corruption. It already doesn’t like the published records of trullions in bad investments while leaving our troopers with insufficient armor and a DVA that leaves IED victims to the streets and the elements.
So until I see otherwise, I’m going to assume that’s trillions going to defense contractor lobbyist junkets and bribes.
bobthened@feddit.uk 6 months ago
That doesn’t really matter though. The point still stands regardless of if it’s explained by money literally disappearing into a hole or huge rounding errors and inefficiencies in their accounting systems.
They are still allowed much much more leniency with much larger amounts of money (aren’t they aren’t ever properly held to account for it) than regular people are allowed with comparatively tiny amounts of money.
Knightfox@lemmy.one 6 months ago
A big part of it is reporting requirements, despite what some people think different portions of the government have different requirements. The reason a person gets inquiries about Venmo payments is because the IRS requires corporations to report that information to them and it’s a mainly automated process.
Regulatory reporting requirements of Corporations to the IRA can’t be copy pasted onto Pentagon spending reconciliation.
A better comparison, that is still not accurate, would be a cash business that has to report income to the IRS and has trouble getting granular details organized.
Complaints about transparency and accountability on the Pentagon budget are a valid complaint, but this is a poor example.
Crashumbc@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Cash business is a great example, considering 99% under-report their income by a huge amount…
HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
as if I know exactly where the fuck all my money went all the time
ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Ha you can’t even receive $50 of digital payments (venmo, cashapp, whatever) without passing an invasive KYC check. Fuck big brother.
Thermal_shocked@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I’m not reporting that someone sent me their share of the mortgage through an app rather than cash. Get fucked.
ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
That’s a personal transaction and not business so you don’t have to claim it anyway.
jetsetdorito@lemm.ee 6 months ago
If you’re paying a mortgage and someone is paying you for one of the rooms, as far as the IRS is concerned that is income 🙁
douglasg14b@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah you do it’s still income…
If someone else is paying you for your mortgage anything past the interest is considered income since it’s paying down the principal.
And you don’t have to worry about reporting it venmo will already do that for you :/
adrian783@lemmy.world 6 months ago
you don’t have to report anything, thats also why they do random audits.
Thermal_shocked@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Venmo reports it
Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Sorry to be that person but this doesn’t make sense for a couple legitimate reasons.
sh.itjust.works/comment/6179467
For sure BS the DoD isn’t really improving. Yet this is an apples to oranges comparison.
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It’s not about taxes, not really. It’s the hypocritical and one-sided scrutiny of citizens vs corporations and the military industrial complex.
Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
It’s still wrong. Even when not about taxes directly.
It demonstrates either ignorance about government responsibilities, ignorance about GAP, or combination of both.
People passing this around should do better to come up with an applicable comparison regarding oversight the IRS has. There are many examples.
But the IRS isn’t the GAO. Auditing the DoD will never be something the IRS handles.
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
My reading: Uncle Sam’s Ledger Logic:
$2 trillion vanishes into the Pentagon void? “Oops, slipped through the cracks!”
Your $600 Venmo transfer? “Caught you red-handed! Now, where’s our cut?”
paultimate14@lemmy.world 6 months ago
On the other side of the meme, why shouldn’t money obtained via a 3rd party platform need to be reported to the IRS? I don’t understand the complaint.
Is your business suddenly special and tax-exempt just because you sell your custom knick-knacks on Craigslist on or accept venmo for your at-home dog grooming service or whatever?
TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 6 months ago
The joke is that they hold taxpayers to ridiculously high standards, to the point where the concept of $600 of unreported income is something the government will harass you for. While they can just accept billions of their own spending going unaccounted for without a second thought.
scottywh@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I’m honestly pretty upset about having to report “income” on reselling random old used shit out of my closet and garage on ebay all of the sudden.
Taxes have fucking been paid. This shit is not the same as wages and shouldn’t be treated the same.
AncientFutureNow@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The $600 paypal/venmo/etc reporting thing has been postponed and is not a thing for this coming tax season.
time_fo_that@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Good that’s so annoying. If I send my roommate $1000 to cover my portion of rent (which I used to do every month at my last place) it’s not fucking “income” for them lol.
samus12345@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Now, my advice for those who die
Taxman!
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Taxman!
Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
And everyone is gonna downvote me for mentioning Monero as the real fucking solution.
gardylou@lemmy.world 6 months ago
[deleted]Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Well I’m just not going to counter you with the obvious. Figure it out your damn self, moron.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
No, I down voted you because you brought up votes at all. Begging for down votes is just as lame as begging for ups.
Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
But I work for the CIA too, man.
explodicle@local106.com 6 months ago
If a value overflow incident happened with Monero, it never would have been detected.
Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Value is contribution. Not explotation. Hiding that level prevents exactly that level and is no longer manipulateive. Especially not the proffesional wall street level of exactly that kind of slavery which totally cannot be done in capitolizm.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 6 months ago
“We don’t know where 2 trillion went” is a headline similar to the ones we’ll be seeing a few years after this debacle in Ukraine.
Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Weird example, as you’re saying pretty explicitly exactly where the money went, and plenty of people would be fine with it
Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Well Gary Webb would have had a good argument about the CIA’s history if exactly that but he commuted suicide by shooting himself in the head. Twice. Two weeks before he was going to court as a journalist with evidence ethat the CIA was dealing cocaine to America.
Emerald@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Image Transcription: Twitter Post
Brave New Films, @bravenewfilms
The Pentagon: we don’t know where $2 trillion went.
The IRS: you sent $600 on Venmo. Don’t forget to report it.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com 6 months ago
It’s all Stargate wars obviously.
LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The bitching about the DoD is dumb. It’s clearly a necessity with even bigger asshole nations being cunts.
TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
“Accountability is dumb because China” 😵💫
EasternLettuce@lemm.ee 6 months ago
[deleted]LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Oh right, the US is still out creating basket states 🙄
pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I just got a notification from eBay that said they won’t release my money from selling until I provide them with my SSN or tax ID because I’ve sold over $600 this year. It was probably like a total of $602 because I rarely ever sell anything on there except old tech stuff when I really need money.
TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world 6 months ago
As someone who has to pay back half of my COVID relief but so many rich people and corporations don’t- I feel this deep in my black soul.
$7000 on top of my student loans👍
STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Quick question? How come you gave to pay half of it back? On what grounds?
TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They “reassessed” my account and that’s all the reason they gave.
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 6 months ago
But also not /s
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I made a $10,000 payment to close out mine a few years ago. Turns out I was right that Biden wouldn’t do anything meaningful on that front, and I was tired of being gouged on the interest.
BossDj@lemm.ee 6 months ago
You should take a second to look up who is in the way of that happening, because it sure as hell isn’t Biden.
asteriskeverything@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Dude you know they were referring to covid relief and not LOANS. “On what grounds” they said, obviously that’s not referring to paying back a loan and instead on what grounds would you have to pay back RELIEF funds.