Tag Archives: Department of Defense (DOD)

We Are Finally Seeing Some Results

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On Monday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about some serious cuts made to the Department of War spending.

The article reports:

The Deep State’s endless gravy train just collided with a massive brick wall.

In a direct and no-nonsense video announcement, Hegseth revealed the Department of War is immediately terminating $5.1 BILLION — yes, BILLION with a capital B — in wasteful contracts for consulting, nonessential services, DEI, climate nonsense, and duplicative IT work.

According to Hegseth, one of the largest savings comes from contracts awarded through the Defense Health Agency to consulting giants, including Accenture, Deloitte, Booz Allen, and other firms.

Those cuts alone are expected to save taxpayers approximately $1.8 billion.

Another $1.4 billion will be saved by eliminating a software reseller contract tied to enterprise cloud IT services.

Hegseth also highlighted a staggering $500 million Navy contract dedicated to what he characterized as bureaucratic “business process consulting.”

The article concludes:

So, if you’re keeping score at home, today’s cuts bring our running total to nearly $6 billion in wasteful spending over the first six weeks of the DoD-DOGE effort here at the Defense Department.

Their job is to go out and find the stuff that we can get rid of and then flow back into—drive back into—warfighting capabilities here at the Defense Department.

So, we want to thank our friends at DOGE. We want to thank all the folks here that have contributed to this effort.”

This is only a small percentage of the federal budget, but it is a good beginning. The problem has never been the lack of income from taxes–the problem has always been the runaway spending. It looks as if some of the things that DOGE discovered are now being acted on.

It’s Time To Pass An Audit

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about what is necessary for the Defense Department to pass an audit.

The article reports:

The Defense Department has been plagued by serious financial reporting issues that must be fixed for the agency to pass a full audit for the first time, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.

“For the seventh consecutive year since the Department of Defense (DOD) was required to undergo full-scope audits, DOD received a disclaimer of opinion on its financial statement audit in fiscal year 2024, meaning DOD could not provide auditors with sufficient, appropriate evidence needed to support information in its financial statements due to ineffective systems and processes,” the GAO reported this month.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 requires the agency to “receive an unmodified (clean) audit opinion by December 31, 2028.”

Despite the agency’s failure to pass a full audit, Congress again raised defense spending in fiscal 2025 to nearly $900 billion. 

The defense budget could reach $1 trillion after an additional increase for fiscal 2026, based on President Donald Trump’s budget request.

The article concludes:

“DOD’s assets represent a significant portion of the federal government’s reported total assets. The ability to properly account for and report these assets would improve DOD’s ability to successfully carry out its mission and is critical to achieve an unmodified (clean) audit opinion,” the GAO report reads.

The Defense Department is the only major federal agency that hasn’t received a clean audit opinion on its financial statements.

“This not only impedes DOD’s financial transparency but that of the U.S. government as a whole,” the GAO said.

All government agencies should be required to pass an audit every year. A successful republic requires transparency.

Better Late Than Never (I Guess)

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On Thursday, The Hill posted an article about a policy Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has recently put in place at the Department of Defense.

The article reports:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said the Pentagon would no longer allow Chinese nationals to work as coders on Department of Defense (DOD) cloud systems. 

A program previously allowed Chinese developers to work as “digital escorts” in a role modeled by Microsoft, where foreign nationals remain under the supervision of remote U.S. contractors.

China has a long history of stealing intellectual property, military secrets, etc. Why in the world would you let them anywhere near the computers in the Department of Defense?

The article notes:

Hegseth said the effort “exposed” the department to “unacceptable risks.”

“I mean, if you’re thinking America first and common sense, this doesn’t pass either of those tests. So I initiated an immediate review of this vulnerability, and I want to report our initial findings,” the Defense secretary said in a Wednesday video uploaded to the social platform X. 

“So the use of Chinese nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments, it’s over,” he added. 

Hegseth said Microsoft would conduct an audit free of taxpayer expenses to uncover any vulnerabilities.

“Additionally, all Department of Defense software vendors will identify and terminate any Chinese involvement in DOD systems,” Hegseth said.

The article concludes:

Hegseth said both the Microsoft audit and a separate investigation were launched to reveal malware and associated risks.

“We’ve issued a formal letter of concern to Microsoft documenting this breach of trust, and we’re requiring a third-party audit of Microsoft’s digital escort program, including the code and the submissions by Chinese nationals. … I’m also tasking the Department of Defense experts with a separate investigation of the digital escort program and the Chinese Microsoft employees that were involved in it,” Hegseth said Wednesday.

“These investigations will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround. Did they put anything in the code that we didn’t know about? We’re going to find out,” he added.

I guess common sense took a vacation for a while. It’s good to see that it’s back.