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In reply to the discussion: Pete Hegseth's Defense Department blew $22M on steak and lobster in a single month, watchdog claims [View all]
BumRushDaShow
(168,871 posts)46. The main gist of the report that was issued
was not the "steak and lobster", but the sheer QUANTITY of EOY spending by DOD in 2025 that was unprecedented. From the report -
(snip)
Open the Books has tracked the annual September spending bonanza for nearly a decade. Military spending has spiked every year, regardless of which party controlled the White House.
However, there has never been anything quite like September 2025, when $93.4 billion was spent on grants and contracts. Since at least 2008 — and presumably in history — no federal agency has ever spent so much on grants and contracts in a single month.
In the last five working days of September alone, the DoD spent $50.1 billion on grants and contracts. That’s more than the annual defense budget of countries like Israel and Italy. In fact, there are only nine foreign countries that spend that much on their military in an entire year!
These amounts only include money sent to entities outside the government, not salaries for service members and scores of other expenses. Instead, the shopping spree encompasses luxury food items like lobster, high-end furniture and rushed IT purchases.
(snip)
Open the Books has tracked the annual September spending bonanza for nearly a decade. Military spending has spiked every year, regardless of which party controlled the White House.
However, there has never been anything quite like September 2025, when $93.4 billion was spent on grants and contracts. Since at least 2008 — and presumably in history — no federal agency has ever spent so much on grants and contracts in a single month.
In the last five working days of September alone, the DoD spent $50.1 billion on grants and contracts. That’s more than the annual defense budget of countries like Israel and Italy. In fact, there are only nine foreign countries that spend that much on their military in an entire year!
These amounts only include money sent to entities outside the government, not salaries for service members and scores of other expenses. Instead, the shopping spree encompasses luxury food items like lobster, high-end furniture and rushed IT purchases.
(snip)
As a retired fed, I know all about that EOY rush, while during the year, we were restricted by GSA to some % of spending of our appropriated funds per quarter and then per month, where there were times that we couldn't even buy photocopy paper. And it always ended up that by July/August, there was all this unobligated money that we had to spend, down to the penny, and the race was on to get the quotes and bids, and all the various government contract suppliers were ready and waiting.
But with respect to DOD, I know that one of my former coworkers, who was an Army reservist before we both retired, would bemoan her 2 week "summer camp" service where she said that they either didn't have enough, or had no ammunition to even train with.
So years later, there is a deep problem that persists and it was obviously made worse by the current occupant who heads up DOD.
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Pete Hegseth's Defense Department blew $22M on steak and lobster in a single month, watchdog claims [View all]
BumRushDaShow
Wednesday
OP
And don't forget that Musk and Trump's cut of USAID* has already killed 1,000,000 of the poorest
Botany
Wednesday
#17
"Well, Hegseth, Trump, and all other rich people worked hard, so, they deserve it!" Would be the RW cope talking point
Oneironaut
Wednesday
#35
I believe it was mostly people that could have bought my house and car with their change.
chouchou
Wednesday
#42
Contempt for the average tax-payer and their economic struggles is a hallmark of tRump and his MAGA bootlickers.
Timeflyer
Wednesday
#10
Use it or lose it at the end of a fiscal period leads to a lot of this kind of spending - this seems over the top
JT45242
Wednesday
#11
At $22 per steak that's a million steaks. Even at $44 per steak that is a half million steaks.
twodogsbarking
Wednesday
#34