VIRAL MOMENT: Michael Waltz Confronts Air Force Officials With Staggeringly Expensive Components

[@MatthewMortensen1]

Reminder that this has been going on for decades under all administrations and both parties.

[@spencer4hire81]

Adding to that, many of these items are hyperinflated because they include the cost of the political process of appropriations. If a part *could* be acquired more cheaply, but the factory that currently supplies that part is in the state of a senator on the armed services committee, that part will not be acquired more cheaply.

[@IAMMADEOFMEAT]

Every part that goes into aircraft manufacturing is tagged from the ore the parts are made of to final assembly. if there is a part that is malfunctioning it would be impossible for investigators to see which planes are affected without this system in place. Safety is expensive and politicians don't care about your safety when it comes to creating outrage when there isn't any.

[@brkbtjunkie]

@@IAMMADEOFMEATexcept the door bolts

[@kd741]

Yep! They kick get backs for the overpriced parts

[@leoelliondeux]

Its not the people, its the system. And that system is capitalism.

[@ThomasHoag-k7d]

When I was in the Army we had a joke. A general holds up a pencil, saying,"To you it's a 25 cent pencil, but, to the military it's a $25 hand held, portable, graphite fed, transcribing device".😂

[@PhillipMikeHunt]

Don't lose it

[@sirsancti5504]

I still prefer the "super expensive pen, developed by NASA that can write in space, zero-gravity!" while the russians use a pencil.

[@nybbleme]

And the generals brother or nephew or other relative owns the pencil company.

[@nybbleme]

​@@sirsancti5504the reason not to use a pencil in space is if any of the graphite shavings get loose it is electrically conductive and could cause a problem.

[@oldmanjim2376]

@@sirsancti5504 The pen was made by Fisher and sold at a reasonable cost (even got a discount for bulk purchase, $2.39 each) to both NASA (Apollo 7 onwards) and the Soviets

[@salazardeltoro4561]

If you ever wondered how a politician can enter office with a $120K salary and leave 8 years later worth $9M, here you go.

[@garyindiana8075]

Pelosi could tell you .

[@theyellowmeaning]

@@Slimedog1963 i think you mean socialism, because this is the 'worker's paying themselves.

[@markwison4286]

It isn't capitalism, it's a government contract. Capitalism is when people are able to shop in a free market for the best prices or best quality item of their choosing. It's failing because it's NOT capitalism.

[@Doug-rv3nr]

Look at the Bidens, compare that to Trump.

[@RiderofTime]

Fun fact, Trump is the only president to have a decrease in worth due to presidency. He went from 2.2 billion to 1.1 billion in 4 years. Obama entered the white house on January 21st 2009. When he left in January 21st 2017 he had gone from 1.3 million in net worth to a whopping 46 million dollars. You do not do that as a "public servant" legally.

[@umberct]

We have been hearing this in Congress since the Ford Administration: $40K toilet seat, $20K screwdrivers and etc. when does the bullshit stop.

[@grega2362]

It was a 700.00 screwdriver. It was XXX long of XXX hardness and totally non magnetic and there were 2 per YYY squadron. The reason they cost what they did is because they are not commercial parts. You cant get one anywhere except a YYY sqd and at the time there were less than 100 in the world. You would pay 700+ for a starter on a Cadillac Catera because they were one off parts made in Germany. Price is high because there were not many made.

[@tigrehermano]

wait til you know about politicians purchases when in power... the Fox family from the exMexican President it's still mocked until today for their massive purchase of bathroom towels for 1 thousand dollars EACH towel. there was nothing special about them.

[@Chris-rg6nm]

That was a $640 Toilet seat. Why did you increase it so much?

[@williamsteveling8321]

@@Chris-rg6nm quoting Independence Day, at a guess

[@Breadbored.]

@@grega2362 You can easily commission somebody to make a screwdriver for less. It would be cheaper for the military to buy a lathe and the materials to make the screwdrivers and have somebody they're already paying a salary make them.

[@SargentD4]

If anyone did this on their taxes you’d be in prison. Give them the same punishment

[@Slimedog1963]

the same prison Hillary was suppose to be in?

[@ashtonhartley2662]

There's an idea.

[@davehuber6949]

Trump has ben doing this on his taxes he’s not in jail

[@TeensierPython]

@@davehuber6949pretty sure trump is one of the only politicians to have less money after being in office.

[@systemofadownfan911]

@@davehuber6949 lol are you referring to the civil fraud case out of ny? No one pays taxes based off the market value of their property, her case is a sham. Evading taxes is a criminal offense, which hunter might actually be guilty of

[@GhostFuture2000]

I have half a bag of zip ties in my shed, I am willing to sell them to the military for the low low price of $20k

[@kkiidd77]

And they would take them! 😂😂😂

[@causticgreen7848]

2 bolts with a bit of rust 50$ each

[@bill5197]

They'll buy it for "20k" if you let them keep 10

[@GhostFuture2000]

I hope you are not suggesting that the reason things are so expensive has anything to do with fraud, bribery and corruption 😯

[@STOPDELETINGMYCOMMENTSFASCISTS]

​@@GhostFuture2000never politicians are always honest lol

[@The_Other_Dan]

You don't need a 'knowledgeable buyer' to recognise that a bag of bushings for $90k is a ridiculous price. You just need people who aren't corrupt as fuck.

[@ArkAngelHFB]

Depends how perfect they need to be, for what, and made of what. These are for jet engines so may need to be made in a special way... I can make a computer chip sound like a fucking pile of sand if I strip away the context of WHY it is special. That isn't to say the bushing are not over priced... it is to say that I also don't trust the cock sucker holding the 90k bag of bushings as a fucking prop...

[@ChrisM541]

@@ArkAngelHFB FAA-compliance is ALL that's needed, as stated here. $90,000 is, 100%, robbery. Obviously. There is NO justification.

[@The_Other_Dan]

@@ArkAngelHFB It's a bushing not a piece of high technology. It's basically a simpler metal tube used when ball bearings are overkill. Not that I think politicians are trustworthy but the fact that the guy being questioned who would know just accepted that figure without even blinking tells me that even if that particular bag isn't a $90k bunch of metal tubes that sort of ridiculous pricing is 'normal'.

[@ArkAngelHFB]

​@@The_Other_Dan Look all I'm saying is... This reeks of the same kind of contextless bullshit half truth that said NASA spent money developing a pen that could right in space... While the Russia just used a pencil... And say it like Russia was smart, and NASA was wasteful. And if you don't get why spending money to not take notes with something that creates electrically conductive dust every use... while flying inside of a battery in space doing mach fucking 32. Well I've got a bag of bushing for $25 I pulled some F-150s in a junkyard. Go put em in your jet engines.

[@Reiken2007]

@@ArkAngelHFBthat bag doesnt even cost 1$ in production

[@raymondjoseph7177]

I lost my job cause i couldn't take the robbery after a few years. I knew 100% the government had direct purchase agreements with direct manufacturers of products. The very products my company "built" for the government. My boss who i met 2 times over 5 years worked somewhere on the planet. I became friends with the project manager over those 5 years and kept asking why the government was paying 500k for each piece of equipment when they could direct buy from the manufacturer for 50k. Those where the figures and it pissed me off. Eventually the project manager came in my office and said "we did it. We cancelled the hardware portion of the contract and are going direct purchase." 2 month later i was fired. Cost the company 15 million per year over a 10 year contract. They were pissed but i felt great. Like i actually saved the taxpayer a few bucks.

[@donnel5516]

Good on you mate.

[@backfire8744]

One of the most badass things that you can do in the 21st century - I commend and respect you. I wish more were like you, myself included. Something needs to change.

[@MilesFast2.0]

It’s good that you caught the scheme, but you didn’t save the tax payers any money. If the government, including the military, want something they will get it no matter the cost. We still will pay the same taxes. Well, i don’t pay taxes anymore, but people that do will…

[@Vefyoutubecensorfutub]

You need to file a whistleblower type of suite

[@raymondjoseph7177]

@@Vefyoutubecensorfutub na they had legit contracts. Happens all the time. I just got tired of it.

[@Danno774]

$10,000 hammers, $40,000 toilet seats, $80,000 bushings... The real question here is why are we paying taxes to help them do this to us?

[@nonjaninja4904]

It's not even real money. It's fiat currency. It always goes to zero. Every time throughout history.

[@pearljameric]

We are forced to by threat of violence

[@QuickStrikes84]

because they will ruin your life if you don't.

[@uncleruckus69420]

@@pearljamericyeah this country was built of revolt and yet here they are true patriots paying over 40% tax with no raises while prices spike on everything

[@horatiohuffnagel7978]

Secret projects and illegal operations have to be funded somehow.

[@vannygun]

I was Air Force for 23 years. The " lose it if you don't spend it" budget model is a huge part of the problem on budgets. This was pushed all of the way down to the lowest person. I was " instructed" to purchase parts and supplies from a specific few local suppliers in Iraq while I was deployed there. I would make my orders with the "local suppliers" and a few weeks later I would see the products I ordered offloaded from a KBR or other US contractor supply airplane, delivered to the "local suppliers" and then the local would deliver them to me. They didn't even try to hide the scam. This was just the tip of the iceberg.

[@angelonevado8109]

Absolutely Government needs to get rid of thus use it or lose it model

[@lukeskylicker]

The five step process of non-executive level government spending. 1) New budget just came in, catch up on our backlog of supplies. 2) Fuck we have something urgent, *unlimited dollars!* 3) Alright guys we spent way too much on that, total freeze on all spending I don't want anyone buying toilet paper without supervisor approval. 4) Quarters up and we still have money in the budget, buy whatever you can justify or we won't get that money again next year. 5) Who ordered all this shit?

[@theundead1600]

Very true.

[@courage04]

And look how we are ranked 24th on the Corruption Perception Index 2023 lol. This feels like a kick on the back of taxpayers.

[@vegetoavery]

​@@lukeskylickerdamn thats totally true.

[@2DclanSnipingTeam]

If those bushings are aluminum it's a $50 bag. If they are titanium its a $200 bag. So we taxpayers were only overcharged $89,800.

[@boondoggled1]

They will always use cheapest and weakest product

[@beefy8269]

What about the cost of the bag? I'm sure that's factored in

[@-Primer-]

Bushings are "wearable" items. Titanium is not a soft metal, and it "work hardens" as it heats up. Bushings are made to wear out, before the main part it is protecting. Brass, copper, bronze, babbitt, some forms of carbon are all suitable bushing/bearing material. Aluminum is not a suitable bushing material for even a lawn mover as it is too soft and will gall easily.

[@houseadams4841]

Soooo…. Do those other metals equate to $90K..?? Not sure metal type was the exact point…

[@dsc420247]

Money laundering!!!!!

[@ThunderWindz]

Same in pharma. It is so stupid... A door gasket - 2000$ - cost to produce: 10$

[@OutOfNameIdeas2]

You think it costs 10$. Try 50 cents lol.

[@bobeyes3284]

Every person that approved these contracts should be in jail and forced to pay back the money they stole.

[@cbjewelz]

It’s everywhere in government. I’ve seen the price tags on local public projects here and it’s insane. $1M to upgrade an outdoor workout area, $10M to add a small extension to a stone house in the park. They claim they go with a bidding auction but everyone is inflating prices in the first place!

[@fredbyoutubing]

Contractors that overcharge because the government trust them may be accountable as well.

[@PureSPLprix]

AOC got us a 16 million dollar refund.....let's hope he can swing getting us our money back too.....that's what a country in trillions of debt needs regardless of parties. Rand Paul's been digging in people's 🫏 too and I love to see it every time

[@kkon5ti]

So the whole pentagon?

[@zeke1220]

I believe this would be included in the budgets voted on by Congress.

[@Dale-b6o]

The entire government needs to be audited by citizens and make the findings public.

[@letsgobrandon7297]

It’s been going on for years. Nobody will do anything about it.

[@RU-HDD-4-HVN]

Make that $90,000 bag of bushings make sense to someone trying to live on the bottom tier of a Social Security type monthly check. But don't limit making sense to others who have less either.......

[@dmrfnk]

​@@RU-HDD-4-HVNIf u know anything about jet engines and machining you'll know those things will fall from the sky real quick if u source your parts price first from where ever and skip the costly qc. Like u see with Boeing. But if u lived the life of the bottom income bracket you'll know out there it may seem like it doesn't even matter whose army you're gonna be drafted to.

[@RU-HDD-4-HVN]

@@dmrfnk He had mentioned at least using the Federal Airlines standard for obtaining the parts as it would be much more cost effective and safe too. But I can see what's going on here with a $90,000 bag of military grade bushings. It's called a gratuitous ripoff of the American people. How much would one bushing be at that price per bag? It's possibly $1,000 each more or less.

[@derekhettinger451]

I would have posed it as, "and make the findings subject to mortal review."

[@TheMje1963]

This brings back the $300 toilet seat and $5,000 hammer

[@will7its]

Much worse though.....

[@alexrodgers9247]

We must be similar in age. The toilet and hammer was my first thought.

[@stevenhunt933]

Exactly what i thought . Its the nixon era effect all over again . In one word , corruption .

[@Hunter-zp5hd]

They never really stopped doing this. Just every once in a while, something so ridiculous comes up in some hearing, and it gets coverage. But this happens 24x7x365.

[@will7its]

@@Hunter-zp5hd Big gubmint.....

[@Thatssosad1234]

Needs to be investigated, and see who is receiving all the kick backs.

[@kristiansomogyi744]

Politicians obviously... that's why it's called developed countries, they developed the corruption.

[@lasdospalomas1281]

More that they want inflated pricing so they can have inflated budgets. Just "in case" the Military Industrial Complex will ever have to take reductions they will doing do on bloated budgets. This also goes for any government - state, county city... I run a fresh produce processing company. We supply large food service corporations that are awarded bids for government contracts. When we have been invited to bid, we have always lost. When I hired an adviser to help me with the bidding process, he told me we were too low: " They never go with the lowest bid; they only go with bids that are higher than what they are already paying." We opted to not participate in government bids, we don't want be part of the problem. I met a woman who bragged to me she sells used monitors "most of which are broken, outdated, don't work" to the military. One of the problems is civilians cannot get jobs within the military so everything goes unchecked.

[@LuisCasstle]

They're experts at creating a giant paper trail, and all it takes is one missing document to stall an investigation. They designed it that way. Their kickbacks come in the form of stock dividends.

[@RidinWithMyLocsOn]

I would guess CIA shell companies mostly

[@alexanderfransen2486]

@@lasdospalomas1281actually civilians do get jobs within the military I mean for starters that’s literally how they recruit, but also there is what’s called civil service. You work for the military as a civilian aka a non military personnel. I do the job of someone in the military without having to go to war or boot camp, or directly report to any military person unless something in particular requires it. I’m a Department of Defense employee. And I can say yeah it doesn’t matter the shit goes “unchecked” still because that’s just how it all functions anyway. If I had the power to adjust or change it in some way to improve it I would but that’s not how it works I don’t and will probably never have that say.

[@paulweiler8967]

Corruption should be a crime and should be punished with years and years of jail time.

[@B_u_r_r]

Im pretty sure treason is capital punishment

[@Lagonas_]

Surprise! Corruption is a crime, and it has years and years of jail time. Of course there are so many types of corruption that you can't put an exact number on it. Some corruption is a slap on the fingers, another type is 15 years in prison. The issue with corruption in most countries is that the people that need to bring a case, are often the buddies of the person that is accused, or it is very difficult to prove that something is corruption, and not just someone being an absolute idiot in his job. You can be not suitable in any way shape or form for your role, but that is not corruption. A lot of people should be in jail, but yeah.. Prove it..

[@tking6330]

We don't have enough prisons for that.

[@del0ryan88]

technically it is they just don't enforce laws on the elite as much.

[@LaxTenzin]

@@tking6330we do if we make em cause government seems to have money to build prisons for minorities

[@DiscoDashco]

This is nothing new, even before W’s re-invasion of Afghanistan & Iraq 20 years ago. I fixed F-15s in the USAF and the prices on some of the most basic parts would cost hundreds to thousands a piece! And just like the bushings in this video, $300+ for a trunnion or $1600 for a piece of stamped aluminum that does nothing but hold a light bulb in place, no moving parts, no power sources, nothing like that. This is the real reason why the military budget is so high: weapons developers and manufacturers charge the most they can get away with and the individuals who approve this stuff likely get compensated well, and none of them care either because it just gets “billed to the American taxpayers”. This is fraud, waste, and abuse institutionalized and it seems like it always has been.

[@DataPolice2021]

this is exactly how they are going to expend part of the 61b AID for Ukraine and Israel.

[@rogerjensen5277]

Because all the politicians get their kick backs. You know that Boo Boo Biden is getting his 10% of everything!

[@paulgavian90]

Say it like it is my veteran. Its soo sad, Eisenhower warned of this

[@youbigtubership]

It has always been this way - those with the weapons shake down those without. If you don't buy it, your enemy surely will.

[@JasonB808]

if in computer parts are expensive. RAM you can buy online as a consumer for $100 bucks would probably cost around $500 or more (not sure because I don’t work as data center tech, just guessing). It’s the same exact product too. It’s just that US military is forced to buy from a verified supplier which means they can charge whatever they want for it. To “save” money, some hardware is so old that it was designed to run Windows Server 2008 and now we got Windows 2k16 and 2k19 on them and it’s ridiculously slow. Updating the severs with a security update can take two to three hours. If they got hardware from at least 2019, the updates would take 10 to 15 minutes. I guess I should feel lucky because the longer the server maintenance takes, the better it is for my employment in IT for Navy.

[@k333rl]

always love how empty these chambers are during these meetings. we pay them to do a job and their attendance is optional.

[@theflybaby6736]

And if you miss a day you lose your healthcare. That's the trickle down working as intended.

[@PatDK]

Nobody else wants to be called out randomly because they happen to be there

[@yellowusbrickus4821]

​@@theflybaby6736 Anyone who says "trickle down" unironically doesn't know what TF they are talking about

[@quantumblurrr]

@@yellowusbrickus4821Oh they do. That line worked on the people for decades, it worked as intended

[@theflybaby6736]

@@quantumblurrr it’s seems like you understood what I was saying comrade.

[@JLKChee]

Putting the bigger problem aside, kudos to these 2 men, actually having discussion and not deflecting or directing blame. Just recently been promoted to a manager and on an organizational level, I can see the complications, politics and etc that exists within a company. I can only imagine it would be way more complex within an army for a country. It is not as simple as let's buy from a different supplier, but yet not impossible, someone just need to be accountable to it and work out a solution.

[@poetryflynn3712]

Corporations should be banned. They make it where no one can be held accountable for anything in a company.

[@irresistablejewel]

One solution is make your own: bushings; standard fixtures and generic medicine (at cost); removing a lot of paperwork and "middlemen", but that would spoil the game and it's a billion dollar game this "systemic problem". If you have just been promoted to manager I recommend "Never Confuse A Memo With Reality" by Richard A Moran and if you can sell bushings at 90K a bag, not to be the one complaining.

[@thatguy9088]

Former Air Force Aircraft Mechanic here. Sometimes, when we got bored we would look up the cost of parts on Fed Log (our parts ordering system.) The amount we pay for normal parts is jaw-dropping. 90k? Chump change. I once found a screw in the Air Force inventory that cost 1200 bucks, PER SCREW.

[@Penelopesyoutube]

Fed log - Walmart

[@ec5838]

I was in the Army and saw the same kind of thing. What really pisses me off though is that eventually most people become used to or "numb" to the insane prices of things and then say "oh its only 100k" for something thats not even worth a grand. Then when discussing with them the price of a missile (or whatever) and someone argues its way overpriced, they push back saying oh thats not much money cause we spend x,y,z on bolts or whatever. Drove me insane.

[@fidel-3470]

One particular nut we used on the KC--135R engine cowling cost $435 each, they couldn't be reused, and there was 60 of them per engine, and just due to flightline maintenance they would need to be replaced every 4 weeks to 6 weeks for active duty aircraft. The tool room inventory bin had the cost of every item stamped on the card and a lot of it was ungodly prices.

[@dafunkmonster]

@@Nopadope But you can't pick up the exact same thing at Home Depot.

[@bradleymacdonald7292]

Takes getting screwed to a whole new level😂😅

[@Maadhawk]

This is why Eisenhower warned us, in his farewell address, to be wary of the military-industrial complex.

[@Badfish1978]

Eisenhower was the last awesome president. I would say JFK was but who knows. He died too early to actually truly find out.

[@zurg7029]

And the first president to ever exist (who was also a Freemason I might add)

[@ronc7743]

And one reason Kennedy was offed.

[@TlD-dg6ug]

@@Badfish1978 too early? JFK rejected the Federal reserve Bank as well as the industrial military complex.

[@jaredclark8335]

@@Badfish1978the fact that he was better de-ad than alive to the powers that be is testimony to that. No one buys the Oswald story

[@stevecooper6076]

I have a friend who bought a war era jeep. It had a burned out headlight so he went to the military to buy a replacement, it was hundreds and hundreds of dollars to buy. He refused to purchase it and said he would get one from the manufacturer, he was told to go ahead. So he went to GM for the part and was quoted the same price for the headlight! He asked why they would sell a cheap little headlight so outrageously over priced, their answer? Because the govt will spend that much for it.

[@Matt-my1gq]

Part of that cost is the OEM having to stock that part. How many decades of storage did it cost to keep that part available. That's why OEM can be so expensive.

[@MattDaBoneless]

1000 dollar hammers and 50 dollar rolls of 120 grit paper called tp and there is your answer

[@SanchoPanza-m8m]

$500 toilet seat. No, these parts don't change over time.

[@maweitao]

The government is paying to keep a GM assembly line open that will make those headlights to rigidly defined standards. Not necessarily tight tolerances, but whatever weird legacy requirements they've defined. When a consumer buys OEM, that headlight didn't actually come out of a GM factory. It was cranked out by some third tier vendor who outsourced to China decades ago. The only connection to GM is the logo they laser etch on the side. Absolutely the system's broken but there are no easy fixes.

[@stevecooper6076]

@@maweitao …this story took place mid 80’s. Imagine what it costs now!

[@lesteubes-r1t]

A friend was asked by the Royal Air Force to supply wet & dry sandpaper for maintenance tasks. He bought standard wet and dry in bulk from a high street retailer, stamped the back of each sheet with ‘military grade’, and sold it to the RAF for ten times the amount he paid (at that time £20 per sheet for stuff that cost him £2). No one blinked an eyelid at the price, because no one involved in the procurement process (a) knows anything about sandpaper (or anything else), and (b) is paying for it themselves. It’s ’other people’s money’ disease in extremis.

[@JSmith19858]

Bullshit. I've never seen wet and dry with 'military grade' stamped on it around here, and I'm certain stores order it from Cromwell. The 'high cost' isn't the actual purchasing of the items. It's often the vetting and procurement process it all has to go through, as if those bushings are aircraft parts then civilian aircraft parts are the same eye watering price due to the same process. The list of spares I ordered in the past week for a certain machine cost the MoD the same as if I had bought them as a civilian, or less, in fact, as they can claim back VAT. The only hurdle was the bods wanted the electronic components to check over, so that would have an added cost due to that extra manpower.

[@michaelccopelandsr7120]

This is NOT an error. This is INTENTIONAL, DELIBERATE, FRAUDULENT, WRONG!

[@Halozocker104]

Exactly, lobbyism.

[@jackmclane1826]

Partially yes. But not fully. Military contracts often have terms that would be considered VERY exotic in the normal world. Like you are not allowed to sell the whole tech to anyone else. (Yes, military. You can have that. But it has a price and it is HIGH!) Like you have to keep the production line up and operational for quick response if necessary. To ensure production readiness, you have to check at least 10 pieces per day. But I'm only going to order 10 each months. So you have to destroy 300 pieces for just 10 product pieces. Guess who pays for the 300 test pieces? You have to keep staff available for 2 shift operation. Stupid stuff like that.

[@Halozocker104]

@@jackmclane1826 lotta insight i didnt even consider, thanks for your input Jack!

[@bdot02]

​@@jackmclane1826that and then there's the paperwork that goes along with those parts that sometimes weighs more than the actual part. That paperwork is stuff like where the raw metal was last melted, specialty certifications of inspection, material coating certificates and on and on. It's why they cost a lot. I think Elon Musk refers to all that stuff as the "Idiot Index".

[@Dave05J]

​@@Halozocker104this is not lobbying lol. This is corruption/price gouging

[@DavidElstob73]

Anyone so greedy they're gouging on an already priviliged position should be banned from the supplier list for life - and sent to prison for a holiday to think about it.

[@221b-l3t]

Ah but "cost-plus" contracts: "You gave us 20 million to do this but we ran out before it's done. Can we have more money?" "Of course, here's another 20" "Guys we're broke, and we didn't finish it..." "Have some more money!"

[@E1VM]

It's an oem part. They have the right to charge whatever they want. This is America, don't forget it. It's the united states governments job to search out the best deals. You should be pointing the finger at the people who do the buying

[@JoybuzzerX]

@@221b-l3t My dad was military and he said this was how the Air Force built their bases and why they were nicest bases. They'd build everything not essential first, then run out of money before they got to the runway. :p

[@sqlevolicious]

Problem is, they are civilian contractors. Look at the comments, these halfwits think it's dA GuBeRmInT! These are literally civilian contractors that are scamming the US government and tax payers. They make up more than 50% of our military budget. The Government isn't as remotely as corrupt business owners in this country.

[@Hellsong89]

@@E1VM Yes but its also the companies that are giving out bribes to get the contracts...

[@Turbogto_guy]

The government doesn’t care how much it cost. They don’t pay for it. We do. And they force us to.

[@g2avityhitz]

"They" the government is us bro vote better

[@Turbogto_guy]

@@g2avityhitz I voted for trump. See how that went. Voting does nothing. They install who they want. This country is going to need a reboot sooner or later.

[@Rya_N33]

Hey they pay taxes to bro😂

[@FinnMcRiangabra]

US Government agencies have limited budgets. Programs operating under those agencies have limited budgets. Those agencies and programs definitely care how much things cost. Because they have to operate under a limited budget. When the agency is DoD, that is when congress starts practically writing blank checks. Hearings like this show that some people in congress do care. Vote for those people - the ones standing up for you in the way government is run trying to make sure it is run responsibly.

[@DaleOwens-x4q]

And the second you criticize the miitary for this bs, you're immediately labeled a "traitor", "anti american", etc etc. it's insane

[@Sometimes7453]

They have all these hearings and nothing is ever done..... what a disgrace

[@kyledock4470]

It’s all smoke and mirrors funded by the masses

[@hubeargreat7212]

That's the GOP for you. nothing but performative bullshit. Mike is putting on a show for votes.

[@jeffersonState-zx3bi]

As a struggling citizen that bag of bushing would change my entire life l..

[@Patriot-Eaglehead]

Become a defense contractor and start selling bushings?

[@2MeterLP]

I currently live off of 9000 a year. That bag would last me a damn decade.

[@kenho-wr5ul2rh7m]

@@2MeterLP when ur whole life only worth several bags of bushings

[@Bumbobdoodle]

Buy a cnc machine and create bushings.

[@ScrotalsbySackington]

​@Bumbobdoodle they aren't cncd. They're stamped

[@pizzaparty-r1c]

So....basically, money laundering with tax payer's money.

[@SealFredy5]

No, he specifically stated that in this case the USAF was paying commercial rates. He's complaining why the government isn't cheaper - which goes directly against everything his party believes and has been doing for the last 50 years. Seriously, Reagan specifically deregulated the aerospace industry and the Republican party has been on a crusade to deregulate and privatize everything they can (privatize as in force the government to hand contracts for huge amounts of money over to the private sector rather than letting them control manufacturing themselves; by definition). Also jet engine parts (and plane parts in general) are ludicrously expensive. You could save a bunch by cutting out profit margins, but the cost of those bearings will always be far more than the average person will ever understand. TLDR; this guy is a cocksucker trying to score political points without doing anything to fix the problem he created. He's probably already followed this up with "why the military should give more money to private companies in my district so they can give me more lobbying money" in a follow on social media post.

[@HarpreetSingh-xg2zm]

@@SealFredy590k for bag of bushing isn’t commercial rates.

[@Slimedog1963]

say it with me...$34,000,000,000,000 in debt....

[@Slimedog1963]

there is no money...spent many years ago...only IOU's allowed. 34 trillion of them.

[@kylespevak6781]

Exactly! $80 billion to Ukraine for guns

[@mondobondo49]

As long as our corrupt politicians make bank off of the corrupt MIC, this never ends.

[@Slimedog1963]

Keep complaining...its working wonders so far...🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@murkadelic422]

​@@Slimedog1963 and do you have a solution? I bet not, so what else do we have to do about it? People like you are ridiculous.

[@kastieldj]

@@murkadelic422The MIC is great, but you understand it could be so much better? Without being price gouged the government can save millions and put that towards R&D or better parts or better equipment. Corruption = bad let’s get that in our heads

[@ragincaucasian9209]

yea imagine these politicians are actually baffled like this is some new discovery to them, pretty sure they're just putting on an act

[@masonmax1000]

ow but it goes far deeper then politicians and even the chair force.

[@FinnDarius]

In my home town, the local government wouldn't stop demolishing and rebuilding the roads because they take cuts from the budget for spending on the raw materials. Traffic keeps piling up in our area and the roads don't even get any better after the reconstruction. My dad who did civil engineering would drive past the half built roads and mention how poorly made they are. My mom who works at the local government office would hear of the higher-ups arranging themselves "team building trips" to other countries.

[@dishtopia]

"I will gladly pay for those bushings......" - George W. Bushings

[@FungeHucker]

Thanks for the giggle 😂

[@verlinswarey507]

Ah yes…George W Bushings,inventor of the bushing and also the letter “W”.

[@abdiyusuf7598]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@SpookyDookySr]

I work in aerospace, and my company builds “things” for the military. I’ve seen my company charge $34,000 for something that only cost us a few hundred.

[@lllilililililililililll]

Yeah it's understandable that workers have to be paid to make the parts and test them but markups like that are criminal and the reason why is because all of these companies have no competition they can just charge whatever they want its a monopoly and the few other companies that exist conspire to keep prices high this problem is making its way into every industry and its eating America alive the car industry is just as bad

[@Base-q1g]

I work with on a fed contract. There’s a small part that’s less than 50 cents to buy but we sell it for 85 bucks. Oh a pack of pens “made by the blind” that’ll be 90 bucks

[@lllilililililililililll]

My comment was d3l3ted because our utube overlords don't want me to say that companies c0nzpire to keep prices h1gh and that real competition is needed

[@jamiesherrill1590]

be a whistle blower

[@luketorpedo]

Pretty sure the problem we're talking here is risk and assurance. If a bolt you buy from home depo happens to be defective and breaks your gate falls off, big deal. bolt breaks on an aircraft the whole thing could go down. This would be paying for a degree of ongoing test and assurance that the company can make a claim the product is safe for this purpose, while having some risk budget to cover their insurance in the event it isn't...

[@SitKid721]

Dawg I'm retired airforce and if you think this is bad you ain't seen nothing yet.

[@seanbassett3116]

It ain’t just the AF……. USN is just as guilty.

[@BamBamUSMC]

Its laughable in the USMC… i remember seeing the price in nalcomis (navy/marine corp digital ticketing system for aviation) for a standard smal box of screws… was hundreds of dollars through dod and i could buy the same box from home depot for like $15 Its a scam 100%

[@TheEnglishDane]

Bachman turner overdrive

[@46wireboy]

@@BamBamUSMC True. You know how we got that POS? The Air Force didn't want it. And let's face it, the suck was down right frugal compared to the rest. That's why there was no sht paper come Sept. Sending money back every year...

[@SdotMAULER]

Avi Marine here. The numbers are crazy 😂 ​@@BamBamUSMC

[@Acme12345]

I was working for the DOJ in Australia and every week we poured litres and litres of milk down the drain, threw loaves upon loaves of bread among other things out all in the name of maintaining our budget. When I reported it I was fired : edit, I know some people have been charged for speaking up. WHY is it a criminal offence to be honest and call out the criminals ? When did this become law and WHY, how do we remove dishonest people from governments all over the globe when they have armies and police at their disposal, what the fuck happened to the world ???

[@michaellanders4311]

Just like grocery stores

[@chuyg92]

How does throwing away all of that help you maintain a budget? Isn’t all the stuff already paid for?

[@Acme12345]

@@chuyg92 if we ordered less the following week and so on then the bean counters would look at the year overall and discover we were using less and so they would cut the budget, I hope this explains it to you. Have a great day

[@MicahCarmona]

@@Acme12345but why maintain a budget if you don't need that budget and literally throwing it all away the same way energy is lost from inefficient heating units? I don't understand what's the point of them doing that

[@Kr0nicDragon]

@@MicahCarmonabecause someone is pocketing the $ that isn’t used and they don’t want to loose their new $5mil home. Greed, corruption, ego, basically being a human being in the whole “buy bigger stuff to feel like you’re better then everyone else” world.

[@jooeee23]

Hospitals do the exact same thing to Americans everyday.

[@lanaevans7512]

$25 pill of Tylenol

[@M80-i6m]

We got a bill for $100 per pill when had our 2nd child

[@lander1591]

The $750 Green Gello..

[@LastCall534]

I got a good one for ya. I was in an automobile accident last year. Non life threatening injuries. The staff was adamant with me about an air transfer to another hospital. I told them that I didn't have insurance and couldn't even afford the ER visit, much less an air ambulance and I just wanted to go home. They fear mongered me into compliance. Fast forward six months and I receive a bill for $77,084 for a 20 minute flight. I could have been transported via regular ambulance, but the hospital owns it's fleet of helicopters, so they push them on everybody for every situation.

[@Hot-Jackfruit-3113]

Facts. Ambulances too

[@randomeddie185]

Do you remember the 1980s when John Stossel used to expose this sort of thing on a regular basis and got kicked off of TV for it? $400 screwdrivers and $600 toilet seats? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

[@neil12011]

But Pepperidge Farms ain’t just gonna keep it to Pepperidge Farm’s self. Maybe you buy yourself some of these distinctive Milano cookies, maybe this whole thing goes away.

[@ninjastiz9046]

John stossel still exposes stuff like this to this day on his KZbin channel. But people wanna watch the mainstream media and be brainwashed instead of deal with the truth

[@gordonmorris6359]

As I recall, there was a zillion dollar hammer too.

[@sharoncrawford7192]

Yes, I remember, bless his heart.

[@twiztid6977420]

​@@neil12011😂😂

[@charlieparker5977]

Just went through my dad's old shop, found about $2.2 million worth of nuts, bolts, and washers. Who can I contact from the pentagon to sell these to? I'll even cut them a deal, $1.9 million.

[@PhillipMikeHunt]

I've got 14million worth in my shed. I'll go ya halves if you can sell them for 10 million

[@Rabid_Turtle]

Do you have e traceability for every screw, for every hand it touched from the moment the base metal came out of the ground? If you do does it apply to all regulations required for aerospace? I see you do t understand what you think you know

[@kingchongy1712]

@@Rabid_Turtleand same goes with you if you compliment over tax spending. I’m getting sick and tired of people touching my money

[@kingchongy1712]

@MMattes oh my bad, just didn’t realize I was sitting on a gold mine in my garage. Unless…

[@cdgolem]

You need to be a friend of a Democrat Congressman or Democrat President to get the no- bid govt contracts. During the Haiti rebuilding efforts, the money went to FoB (friends of Bill Clinton)

[@micro7vista]

When I was in the Navy doing cleaning duties we used to get our cleaning supplies from some store on base and we HAD to. A mop head was like $20... for just a mop head we could have just went to Walmart and bought like 5 mop heads for that price. So wasteful and no one cares to put any thought into these ridiculous issues. Instead of being more efficient with our money we just raise taxes instead

[@riccochet704]

The government pays $90,000 for that $200 bag of bushings, and $89,800 goes back in to the pockets of the politicians that signed the contracts for those parts.

[@hodgsonnn]

bingoooo

[@aggregor95]

sounds like africa, getting billions for africa project but 99% goes back in the pockets of who sent the money and in the gov pockets in africa and none for the project

[@InternetKilledTV21]

Don't forget the 10% executive cut

[@TheOGBasement]

That bag is like $10 tops no joke

[@Pichustrikesback]

And I'm pretty sure $200 would be the retail price; the real cost of those parts must be perhaps $30 including labor.

[@orbatos]

Notice how when he actually answered they moved on rather than getting anything done? There is zero interest in cutting costs.

[@nospoon4799]

The faces of those taking notes told a story too.

[@markshaw309]

I agree! Why bring up the topic and grill the guy, then when he tries to answer him, tell him there’s no time lol

[@JohnKendall-je4rx]

Your right this just for grandstanding and to insure the gets paid his cut.

[@techman8817]

Nothing ever comes of these committee hearings. It’s all acting tough then doing nothing.

[@__-ni1kz]

He only has 5 minutes to talk.

[@Nenirusamar]

I was an electricians mate in the Navy and I once had to order a $20k circuit breaker. You could get the same exact breaker for less than $100 anywhere else. Always blew my mind why the military spends dumb ass amounts of money on literally anything.

[@silent9pc]

First off, I'm not defending the amount of money the Military wastes on a lot of shit but it's true, they do. But, what platform and what was the breaker being used for? I was an Aviation Electrician for the Navy in '03-'08, I've never seen a circuit breaker anywhere near that price for two different birds. After the Navy I went to work for Lockheed and several other electronics manufacturers of Class 3 and NASA products, and there can be a lot more to a piece of product than "Yes it's a breaker for 100 amps ± 10%". Being used on an aircraft (usually only Class 3 electronics are purchased for them but there are exceptions), the breakers might have additional rating requirements we're not aware of like a vibration rating, temperature rating, a higher ±% rating, how many times can they be reset, etc. It's possible they're putting a breaker into the cockpit area of say a Mercury when it doesn't require additional temperature rating and wasting money on additional rating that they didn't need. It's also possible that they're using less than what they need, hence why the aircrafts almost always seem like they're falling apart when they come back from flights.

[@mattmaranda]

I remember buying a keyboard for $15k while in the navy

[@LiquidMetalMover]

It’s how they keep their budget so high.

[@WillemDafuq69]

Because they're lining their own pockets while justifying their absurd budget

[@Kittsuera]

does the 20k circuit breaker come with that surge protector warranty in the event of damage to the things connected? if not, then idk. is it any more reliable? wouldnt want a ship to loose power while going under a bridge or anything like that...

[@johnsnow3420]

Glad they are addressing this, this happens all throughout the country with publicly funded projects.

[@GAWOP00]

A friend was in the Air force, and after she left she went to work for Boeing. She was stunned that parts she was using in the military were half if not even more cheaper in the civilian district. This is what happens when corporations are allowed to go unregulated do to lobbying and can milk the tax payers pocket books.

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

Don't blame the companies. They exist to make money. A bear's gonna poop in the woods. Blame the government for allowing it.

[@vikinglife6316]

The only reason those military parts were cheaper is because they have long standing contracts and made those parts frequently. When you get into NADCAP certified companies you cant manufacture parts cheap like that nor can you use parts from commercial or regular military contracted projects. The tolerances, alloys etc are all different.

[@TheThomson94]

​@@rightwingsafetysquad9872 The problem lies within the system itself. On paper, political power is sovereign and separated from the private sector. However, in reality, both are intertwined in a sort of morbid codependency / feedback loop. Companies and their owners support election campaigns, financially back parties, and employ lobbyists. That focuses political will towards a company-centric view and leads to policies/regulations that favour aforementioned companies and wealthy individuals again. Then the cycle repeats. Not to mention personal enrichment and collusive behavior between government officials and business.

[@rightwingsafetysquad9872]

@@TheThomson94 True. But I think this might just be the least terrible system. Almost all anti-lobbying attempts have run against free speech concerns in the past, even when politicians earnestly try to improve things. The military could in-house manufacturing, but then that risks stagnation and DMV level slowness. I don't know a lot about how other militaries do better, but from what I can tell it's 2 things. China just takes control of companies that aren't operating in good faith. And everywhere else just has better people. In Europe and Japan it seems like there's a greater sense that everyone is just playing a different role on the same team. But in America everyone in the private sector is motivated to maximize their profit and everyone in the government, military, and academia is motivated to maximize their prestige.

[@JappaChow]

Lol it is all the red tape that Jack's the price up. I love everyone sees the problem but some just want to make it worse

[@randeldaniel5437]

How our tax money is spent is Outrageous! Sooooo much corruption! 😑

[@KingQuueef]

Wait till you look up the military paying 900k for coffee cups for officers one year just one

[@m4inline]

It's not tax money. It's printed credit created by the Fed.

[@slipknot6789]

​@@m4inline... it's tax money as well

[@yourstruly9222]

We've become a third world country. Previous administrations hid their corruption. Now it's out in the open. They don't have any shame.

[@JtM8292]

🙌 BS right 😡 and Lets not forget the BILLIONS we're giveing to OTHER countries too 🤦🤦🤦 ... WE dont even get a bag of bushings outta it 😣🙃

[@gadarn850]

He acts as though Congress has nothing to do with the problem when those bastards all have stock in the companies that have these contracts. He should arrest himself

[@aidan9563]

uhh yea that’s not the case here mr fox news

[@stemba16]

I have stock in the most of these companies, because it's just no brainer, R and D paid for by the US and then sell it back to US with fat profit

[@itsnyetime]

What are those companies

[@toetz4491]

@@stemba16 yeah R&D for aluminum or titanium bushing that costs $90k

[@Dutty_Boy]

You don't arrest people for owning stocks in companies. A winning stock is a winning stock.

[@Jim-f6d]

I’ve been hearing this conversation for 40 years and I’m sure my grandkids will hear it long after I’m gone. The federal government is corrupt to the core

[@pflanagan1]

This is ridiculous. Who even approves these purchases? Like who sees a cost of $90000.00 fir a bag of bushing and says "ok deal". This is outright criminal and every party should be held responsible.

[@MrZoomah]

Problem is they fired all the government engineers who checked this kind of thing... to save money. They got rid of the experts so people wouldn't know they were getting ripped off.

[@JDAfrica]

The guy who’s brother owns a Bushings making factory

[@Just_A_Name14]

The people put into positions to orchestrate unnecessary spending of others money to get rich

[@Dilmahteabags]

Because when it comes to aviation and dod everything comes down to what’s written in the doctrine.

[@SomeGuy-hd4cn]

Its the same scam as back in the 80's when they were caught listing hammers as costing $500. This how they hide the money for black projects.

[@robinperronjones5024]

$90,000, corruption is alive and well, who vets these costs as you would in the private sector. These politicians are complicit in these purchases, these procurement departments I’ll wager are all on backhanders. This is sickening

[@faraway3032]

They dont care who knows about the fraud anymore. They keep doing it in plain sight.

[@Arcella1987]

It wouldn't surprise me if that $90,000 little bag of bushings was actually owned in some way or another by someone in congress or a politician

[@sax003]

From what I've seen while I was in the air force, there's a ton of abuse to the system. What stood out to me is a thin, foot-long cable needed for the F-15 hydraulic reservoir that costs over 2,500 each. It never made sense to me, but you have to appreciate that the 90k bag of bushings is coming from the LOWEST bidder! That 90k contractor offered the lowest amount to do the job of manufacturing those bushings. It's unbelievable. I'm not 100% sure how the process goes, but I've heard that if they get a certain number of bids for a job, they have to pick one. So a lot of this has to do with greedy contractors knowing they can get more than what they would from a stingy, private consumer. It's definitely a system that can be refined...

[@dr.floridamanphd]

@@sax003​​⁠I had a friend in the Contracting Squadron when I was at Moody. People used to bitch about a $10,000 toilet seat but didn’t realize it was for the B2 stealth bomber. That seat pressurized the toilet onboard so shit didn’t go flying everywhere. That length of hydraulic hose had to be fabricated to withstand the pressures that the F15 put it through. You can’t just grab something off the rack and go. It would fail pretty quickly. That $90,000 bag of bushings are probably for the F22 or the 35. Or maybe they’re for the new Rolls Royce engines Grandpa Buff is getting. We’re given no context as to which aircraft those bushings belong to and what their specific use is. He also didn’t say how many of those bags the Air Force buys at given time. He’s just trying to score points by pointing out the “reckless spending” of the military when he himself doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

[@raidzeromatt]

​@@dr.floridamanphdYeah there's a lot of graft in contracting, but it's not as simple as he's making it sound for bushings If you want every bushing made to aerospace tolerance, you want every single one checked under a microscope, and the only guy who knows how to do it makes a hundred grand a year then it's really expensive Cause first of all, you're not just paying that guy's wage (you're also paying overhead for the shop and whatever margin they need to make). Second, someone without a diploma/5+ yrs of experience probably isn't going anywhere near those bearings. I regularly see ads for people who know how to make certain parts for weapons systems that pay a ton of money (lately it's been for weapons systems going to Ukraine) It's no different than giving out student loans to everyone and people ending up with worthless degrees

[@xmhkillz]

20K to the manufacturer, 70K to pay off the groups who approve these contracts/sales.. sounds like a win/win to everyone.. except the tax payer.

[@kingderpington6082]

Its more like the company gets all the money, and the politicians buy stock in that company because they know it will do well because of the contract. If they gave direct money it would be fraud and super easily noticed by the irs, as that is actually illegal. But for whatever reason, buying stocks isnt.

[@andyfield6854]

Modern politics

[@Mr_Eyeholes]

More like $100 to the manufacturer…

[@aceous99]

@@Mr_Eyeholes only if they are chinese company

[@brinkee7674]

@@Mr_Eyeholes $100 my arse. I can tell you have NEVER had to pay for one single approved aviation part where a single bolt can cost over $700. Yes there is massive waste but aviation parts(FAA Approved) are crazy expensive as each individual part is x-rayed and examined. You don't run down to the local NAPA and buy this stuff

[@bobstaheli8606]

WAKE UP PEOPLE WAKE UP

[@kingjoe3rd]

There used to be a joke about the $400 lightbulb when I was in the military. Now I know it wasn’t a joke. I am glad that congress members are challenging this problem and being civil about it.

[@YuckFoutube-e1z]

Nothing will happen. It never does.

[@redhunter68]

They're just putting on a show. They're all in on it.

[@km077]

They're paid actors... literally.

[@MMAADDICT6745]

There reaping the benefits.

[@FelipeEscobar86]

It's beyond the point of being civil.

[@williampearson6259]

Government waste is absolutely disgusting....we need accountability

[@ZodiacKillerIdentified4real]

It's not a waste for them if most of that money is going into their banks!

[@cm.5023]

It's not waste it's theft.

[@jsonkody]

When I create bushings in left hand and make my right hand pay for it 90k now i have 90k in my left hand .. it's a legal theft that should be illegal obviously

[@gr3m777]

Accountability is a weird way to spell “lynch mob”

[@TurdFurgeson571]

War Is a Racket ~ Smedley Butler, Major General, USMC, 1935

[@aymonfoxc1442]

What wars did Smedley fight in?

[@atomic_wait]

​@@aymonfoxc1442Philippine-American War, Boxer Rebellion, Mexican Revolution, First World War, and the Banana Wars. Received the medal of honor twice.

[@TurdFurgeson571]

@@aymonfoxc1442 Several between 1898 and 1931, including WW1. His actions earned him so many awards that he was the most decorated Marine in history when he was still alive. Awards included two Medals of Honor. He was the kind of man to have considered these his lesser accomplishments in life. But you asked.

[@12yearssober]

​@@aymonfoxc1442 More than you pal

[@aymonfoxc1442]

@atomic_wait Thanks, I knew I'd heard his name somewhere along the way but couldn't place it. To give him credit, a lot of those wars really were a racket, and many are today. The Sudanese civil war is a great example. The thing is, a lot of politicians ignore those with experience in the DIB and the 'back rooms' of power, or they're the ones writing the rules. Oftentimes, I think it's a choice between fuelling the racket or letting someone else build a bigger cartel (even if it means accepting many inefficiencies), and thusly, a more potent military.

[@dennismcdonnell7853]

Why not just make your own bushes in a local shed, since they are soooo easy to produce and let some profits remain in town instead of in international stock matkets.

[@THEDRAGONGAMER]

Imagine if they did this to the health care system.. asking why does insulin cost $500 when it costs $5 to make???

[@flakey7832]

Monopoly

[@virginiosavani]

Greed

[@x3wildcard]

What do you mean IF? This is happening in healthcare RIGHT NOW. The only difference is scale because the consumers/patients don't have the leverage congressmen do. When I order my dad's CPAP supplies through insurance supplier, insurance pays something like 60-70% of the invoice, but he's still out $200 a month from what insurance doesn't cover. Guess what? At an online CPAP retailer he can get the SAME EXACT PRODUCTS (same friggin part numbers) in the same quantity for the exact same out-of-pocket spend. The healthcare and insurance companies use their lobbying power and monopolistic size to negotiate a GIANT payout for themselves masquerading as "taking care of you." Carlin was right all alon: it's a big damn club, and we ain't in it! Fun fact: it is ILLEGAL for a pharmacist to tell you how much a covered medicine costs out-of-pocket if they already know you have insurance. Want to take a guess how that law came to be?

[@AlexKunstar]

Probably costs 5cents to make... let's be realistic

[@fuglong]

Lmao this has to be a joke. Fyi it is happening and has been

[@Benefits]

If I didn't buy food, gas, or pay rent for 2 years, I could almost afford to buy that bag of bushings.

[@daltonmann3759]

As an ex aircraft maintainer, this issue has been raised from the ground up for years. The answer is the officers in charge of arranging the contracts have standing job offers for when they retire to sit on the board of these aerospace companies and financially incentivized to overpay. It’s a fucking embarrassment to have been a part of this racket.

[@freespeech4023]

It may have been embarrassing for you but you stayed and made money from the very system you now scorn, so for that I say to you , stay quiet or give back all the money you made

[@100GTAGUY]

​@@freespeech4023 since they said theyre a maintainer and not a maintenence technician, that tells me they had a job contract they couldnt just back out of. Youre allowed to be a part of a problem, and recognize your part in it and feel ashamed later on, and then speak out against it. Thats called personal growth and recognizing your faults.

[@Jake-bt3fc]

@@freespeech4023 Lmao. This is like getting mad at the white house chef for the government doing bad things. "yOu'Re pArT oF ThE sYsTeM" like bro, he just cooks the chicken, calm down.

[@Me_Caveman]

​@@freespeech4023 U.S. military gets people into contracts they have to fulfill. Most of the guys signing those contracts might as well be janitors. What kind of agency does a janitor who is bound by law to serve have to affect change?

[@sixten7920]

@@freespeech4023I guess you missed the part where he said they've been raising the issue. You know, like, trying to help bring attention to and resolve it?

[@belenyer7759]

I am currently in the navy and serving for 5 years now just reenlisted too, I am an aircraft mechanic and I can guarantee you everything is ridiculously priced in every branch, to give you and example I work with maintenance and upkeep of H60-Romeo Helicopters and to replace a windshield wiper water pump, the pump alone is $1500-$2500 and it’s not a big pump either roughly the size of a golf ball and they break constantly since you can tell they are made of super cheap materials, I am confident enough to say that the cost of manufacture is roughly $30-$50

[@iceman9678]

I'm so glad so many Congressmen showed up for this subcommittee meeting. Taxpayers don't have a gov't.

[@tazzerdeathstalker]

So? they been doing this since before I was born I've been screaming about it all my life and yet here we are! Screwdrivers we're 65.00 40 yrs ago!? So what are we going to do?

[@PoliticallyInsensitive]

​​@@tazzerdeathstalker let's start with "no taxation without representation" and follow a historical precedent.

[@youaregodspursuit-47]

Haven't had a "government" since ... well ever! This has always been about those we elect and not us.

[@jorgearmas9310]

Those people don't work for anyone and they are routinely absent from hearings because they don't care. The idea of representation and the responsibility it carries was lost a long time ago. The only hearings they attend are partisan in nature, where they can hop on camera and provide a sound bite to the complicit media.

[@TC-qd1zw]

Yes Free people have no boss but Politicans do, they are called Tax Payers. $90,OOO, So who gets the obscene profit.

[@leica842]

Why is this type of criminal activity not punished? Auditors needed desperately to staunch this financial hemorrhaging.

[@PvtFlowers]

Your taxes are paying everyone to not do that.

[@ty-kk9vq]

the same congressperson making the point about this also voted to give the military more money lol.

[@sapereaude6274]

Because it is a means of keeping the status quo as it is (getting special people jobs or board member positions that this funds) and of channeling money into black projects.

[@tensecondsplit5471]

Because in the US government we have 5 people trying to fix problems and everyone else is crooked. We have people reporting criminals, to other crooks, who will do nothing about it

[@BaffinSailor]

No unfortunately

[@TheGrantrepreneur]

“You don’t actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?”

[@daschmidtz]

Lol I remember that line but yes the government is actually that piss poor at getting good prices. Sometimes I'm sure it's lying to cover up stuff which is still a problem because there are classified budget items that don't get reported as it is.

[@CougarCat21]

I remember this! From Independence Day quote to the president!!

[@jfkst1]

They do "spend" it. Tax payers just don't get any value back.

[@lynettedaniel3718]

Are those Trump evaluations?? Every wealthy person in a position of power is corrupt

[@MadJawa889]

Independence day quote

[@benthurber5363]

Every year, our military is forced to do battle with their real enemy... "the other branches." They're told that they have to spend every last dime of their budget, or there'll be consequences like a smaller budget... Which would be fine if they actually did their job, but... can't do that.

[@wandamathison1888]

SO MUCH GREED AND CORRUPTION!! TIME TO STOP THIS AND HOLD THE CURRUPT ACCOUNTABLE!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬

[@LordMuffinToken]

How?

[@lewiemcneely9143]

@@LordMuffinToken Right! Replace THEM with WHAT? MORE? That's all there is to choose from!

[@matthewheupel8960]

Unfortunately, everyone is going to do the same thing you are. We're all guulty of letting them do this.

[@montyziebell1077]

We can't afford it anymore????? Why would we EVER pay that? Because our bureaucrasy is corrupt and has been for a LONG time.

[@StephenZ827]

not so much as misunderstood, when you have a buyer which has zero clue as to use of a product, a $500. claw hammer may be reasonable when the paperwork indicates that is what they paid form them last year, or last order. Here's one no one brings up....each state will get a piece of a contract, think a pick up truck, and all its parts. Each part is bought from different states and then shipped to one location for assembly. It's vote security.....I tell a Senator, there is a facility in your state which employees 300 tradesmen and they produce XYZ for our military, we need your VOTE on this defence spending bill. What are they going to do....vote yes...as long as they keep those 300 jobs active. But it is all of us doing this and paying for it via higher taxes.

[@MATTNMEMPHIS]

You have no idea. While $90K is a bit of a stretch, not as much as you think, this is how DOD pays for Black Ops projects. Not only that, FAA Spec parts are crazy expensive. Don't ever buy a plane, you will go broke in no time with the maintenance.

[@StephenZ827]

@@MATTNMEMPHIS Black ops, have a budget already. CIA has one, Other branches have budgets, and they are all classified hidden deep in Biden's garage.

[@HavingFunYet-zc8wb]

..its much worse than that ... at peek Russia was using 40,000 shells a day ..Ukraine 6000 .. worse 800 bases around world .. worse besides no shells .. the 155 artillery wears out and breaks quick ... before Ukraine ran out of 1 55 .. their artillery was out 300 - 500 meter s .. [ worn junk ]

[@Slimedog1963]

Apparently you can as Mike Johnson and the Republicans just sent ANOTHER...yes...ANOTHER $95,000,000,000 to the "Others"...Good thing Americans are complaining on social media...Problem solved!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@7506999]

And another thing... they had to get at least 3 quotes on those parts, nobody held anyone at gunpoint and said they have to buy em, they awarded the parts to someone who BID on them. They were bid at an outrageous cost to try and avoid actually getting the contract. Nobody wants to turn in parts, because the govt requires companies buying the parts to hire a team of people to come up with a million reasons why the parts are not useable. I've had big company qc disqualify my parts, because they were delivered in a box that they deemed "dirty". The Product was in a box, inside the box, vacuum sealed in plastic. $90k says "screw you people" and your dirty box BS.

[@Jeffindsm]

Probably because those inspectors are trying to get back at people charging them exorbitant amounts of money for something you can buy at harbor freight

[@mattdingo8464]

​@@kkjppt5359Wow thank you for breaking that down. Super interesting. The question is, do these costs go down when a project is scaled up? Or does the company keep prices roughly the same despite costs going down with scale.

[@lynettedaniel3718]

They were big on by the politicians buddies. Just like government roads and construction jobs and just about EVERY government job in this country

[@Guardian_Arias]

You dont need a bid. Sole source letters are a thing. Furthermore, the competition could easily be edged out when the contract for the next higher assembly was struck. Nevermind anti-repair campaigns saying things like if you allow independent repair then you will be raped in a parking garage.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

​@@mattdingo8464Economies of scale isn't a law of nature. Producing more doesn't always lower the price per unit. It can even make it more expensive to produce depending on circumstances.

[@Creamypie626]

Because if they use off the shelf parts, there would be an actual price list that people can now use to compare how much the government is paying. Which means less chance to pocket a lot of money because you now have more holes that you need to plug. With special costumized parts, you can just chuck the high price to "it's because it's specialised"

[@richardb7686]

In addition to the buyer being called out, the supplier should be called out as a traitor against the USA.

[@omegakrest]

But that is only if the supplier actually charging $90K for it, there might be a few more middle man that contribute to that price. Remember the case of Charlene Corley and a bill of almost $1mil to ship a 19-cent washer ?

[@richardb7686]

@@omegakrest Yes, who ever is charging the $90K is the traitor. I’m all for profit and capitalism, but that’s immoral at the expense of the tax payer.

[@marzocchi705]

we have the same issue in the RAF, a single bolt for the brake parachute on typhoon cost £900... one bolt.

[@rickking6757]

I've worked in the aerospace industry for over 30 years. About 12 years ago I was doing cost justifications on bringing more machined parts back in house to save money. One part. A 1 inch acme thread made of bronze, 3/4" long with a 1/4" hole thru it was costing us $500 dollars to have made on the outside. Our cost in house was around $48 dollars after time and material. Our company was charging the customer $732 dollars a piece for customer service part. You take a simple bolt and make it aircraft certified you just increased its cost ten fold.

[@ronblack7870]

and how does spacex manage to make rockets so much cheaper - by using common sense in procurement and also making stuff inhouse.

[@schrodingerscat1863]

@@ronblack7870 SpaceX is a good example of huge cost savings using vertical integration and common sense. Eg do we need the part and if we do how can we get it cheapest possible be that in house of bought in.

[@Leon1Aust]

@@ronblack7870 But the things explode. Starship is a failure.

[@anonymoususer638]

@@Leon1Aust "I haven't failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work" -Thomas Edison

[@thegarageluthier]

@@schrodingerscat1863 Sounds great in a spacecraft, always want the cheapest parts to send me to the moon 😅

[@evanm6739]

As someone who was diagnosed with ADHD at 16 and taking meds at 17 until about 22 I wanted to serve in the air force as a pilot like my grandfather but was barred from doing so. It’s a real shame that people like me who want to serve simply cannot; even if there is no medication involved anymore. Anyways my journey didn’t stop there I lawyered up and got accepted into flight school and now I will fly commercially instead. Fix your fucking regulations.

[@LOVES-A1911]

Back in the 1980's my dad did industrial sales and one of the companies he represented sold a wrench for about $5.00 that the U.S. AIR FORCE was paying about $600.00 to $800.00 dollars a piece for them from an approved vendor, they were exactly the same and made at the same factory. Kids today need the JROTC in high schools.

[@LordButterstotch]

The sad part is the Americans that made that bag were paid $5 while the ceo just made $89,995.00

[@Patriot-Eaglehead]

They probably made 2$.

[@bokc_nonpopularsalt1011]

75 cents after taxes ​@@Patriot-Eaglehead

[@jakestuart5858]

Nah somebody took a quarter of that 90k and the rest got dropped to the floor and discreetly kicked back over to the buyer.

[@thisguy9993]

It's a national security issue because if these parts are stupid expensive you can't sustain the military against countries like China and Russia and makes it cheaper and more reliable and better

[@matta344]

Somehow, I don't think any americans were involved in the making of those bushings. It's most likely those bushings were stamped out by a machine somewhere in china, or malaysia, or some other country where they can pay 25 cents an hour; and depending on what the bushings are made out of, each bushing probably costs only a few cents worth of material. That bag of bushings probably cost less than $10 to make.

[@rickreese5794]

Now I’m beginning to understand Why we owe $35 TRILLIONS 🤮

[@Big_Sloppa]

But think how much it contribute to GDP 😲😅

[@AKYLE315]

We don't owe anything to anybody there's no higher power than the government. How can our government be 35 tril in debt when there the ones printing money??? It's a joke the whole system is....

[@rickreese5794]

@@Big_Sloppa Ummm, I’ll pass, my cousin received a Free trip to Nam in 68, lost use of His legs, was a cowboy, he too got a “free van” Theft, lies, and grift are things I prefer to avoid.

[@panzermk8]

We owe $35 trillion because of Medicare/medicaid/social security. Full stop

[@draconicdusk5911]

@@panzermk8 You owe trillions because of your incredibly expensive military. Also, medicine shouldn't be privatized. If you stop the privitization of basic human rights, costs go way way down.

[@rubendiego2012]

The real Mafia/CARTEL

[@Robot-Overlord]

I remember a trash can in the military was $1000. You know the plastic ones?

[@za7v9ier]

Definitely not Made In China LOL

[@carlsaganlives6086]

And those were metric 'generic' models procured for overseas bases - 'premium' stateside models use a gallon measurement featuring assorted colors with the seals of their respective service laser-etched onto the lid, with automatic freshener capabilities, and wheels.

[@positronundervolt4799]

Hahahaha ​@@carlsaganlives6086

[@meritamity]

@@za7v9ier I think they were.. The middleman simply removed the Chinese spyware and marked them up to $1000 each

[@vm.999]

Omg yes! I've been screaming this for years. Thanks for sharing

[@rtile9053]

$90,000 for a bag that probably didn't cost more than $5 to manufacture and $20 or $30 to the machinist or less to the robot who made it. And the empty seats in the galley tell me how Congress is getting so rich. Just keep paying, and you will be paid to keep your mouth shut. What a racket.

[@BillDavidson-l7l]

The bag he is holding is made of steel and machining it is not to expensive to machine but would take a 8 hour shift to do. A machinist rate is with benefits about 50 and hour. The company that employees his needs there cut so $120 an hour. times eight hour. On a machine that cost a half million to buy. If titanium is used that triple the cost because the material is real hard and wears out tooling at a high rate! The bag of bushing is required by the engine manufacturer. When you are flying at 40K feet do you want substandard parts in that aircraft?

[@AzrealMaximus]

GWOT is over, need to get that 💰 somehow. Nothing is going to change, Eisenhower warned about this🤷‍♂️.

[@rtile9053]

@@BillDavidson-l7l What about a $23 million dollar space toilet? Give me a break. It's a con.

[@rtile9053]

@user-yq3fz9ch5q I thought that's what Ukraine was all about. Billions and billions to oil the machine. Don't worry, terrorism is in this country, thanks to Joe Biden and Mayorkus holding the border wide open.

[@richardburger4859]

@@BillDavidson-l7l Id bet the the airlines dont pay $90k for that bag of bushings and it isnt like the machines used to make the bushings has to be replaced after every run, they literally make tens of thousands of them on the same machine. Im sure its a fairly automated system as well, meaning it doesnt take a "Machinist" to do anything except check the tolerances of the finished product or set the machine up and watch it, pretty much something anyone with half a brain can do and probably does. If it was some part that is specific to a certain aircraft it would justify the cost or at least a lot more then just these bushings. This is simple really, a company seeing the government buying a common item and up charging them because the government has nobody to tell them to go pound sand.

[@jonathanpeterson1984]

And they’ll do NOTHING about it.

[@daewooparts]

The 🚽$600 toilet seats back in the 1980's was a bargain 💵

[@nermket4849]

for real

[@navret1707]

Wasn’t just a toilet seat. It was an enclosure similar to an airline head. The whole enclosure. It was for a P-3 an aircraft I spent 4000+ hours in.

[@davee6161]

This has been going on forever. Nothing will change.

[@djjazzyjeff1232]

I agree, but it's refreshing to see him at least bring it up.

[@foxtrot100]

We need people who know that we're being gouged? $90.000 for a small bag of bushings. It's called corruption, and there is a reason that military brass end up working for Defense Contractors. This level of corruption hurts our ability to defend ourselves against threats and should be considered treason in my opinion.

[@beethao9380]

lol. Automatic thumbs down. They know the up charging is a common practice. It seems they just need a fall guy.

[@timstram]

You, my friend, are not "we". We here in America don't write numbers that way, comrade.

[@foxtrot100]

@@timstram Don't call me comrade. I'm not a Communist. That is what the guy said. He was acting like they were just nuieve.

[@timstram]

@@foxtrot100 да мой друг

[@dgoodman1484]

I spent decades as a state land surveyor and I can tell you it also works the opposite way. If we needed a $10 rope out in the field for some reason to complete a task, we either had to pay for it out of pocket or go to three different vendors, submit the three scanned price quotes and a request document and wait 30 to 45 days for approval. The answer from management wasn’t to try to solve the issue, it was, just buy it, go home early and lie on your official time sheet. I refused.

[@jnorris8649]

Not to mention the “if you don’t use it, you lose it” approach when dealing with budgets.

[@williamstrachan]

Tbh, happens in private sector as well. It is a terrible management strategy, but people are addicted to it. I always see an upsurge in roadworks in the last month before the end of tax year 😂

[@gregjo5141]

I've contracted to the government for two decades and they over spend so much everyday. Also they they award contracts to DEI vendors first so they spend 30-500% on several items. The people in the purchasing departments have no clue nor is there an incentive to save money. I have so many real life stories I could tell.

[@jasonbaber1]

Here are some government regulations that come to mind, just off the cuff... Getting MILSPEC certification, maintaining the paperwork required, having security clearances for the workers with all the follow-on background investigators, maintaining logistics flows, 8A contract awards that go to minority-owned businesses that can add 30%, not paying for foreign-made parts even though labor is much cheaper, paying an American worker enough so that after he pays his 50% taxes, he has enough to buy a house and raise a family. Congress creates these regulations and then are surprised to hear that compliance adds to the costs, sometimes in outrageous amounts.

[@will7its]

Don't, you will disappear.....

[@NicholasW943]

What's the most egregious case you've seen?

[@JohnDoe-mx3vg]

Being dead azzzz write Trump a letter explaing you wanna be a whistle blower

[@steveb796]

Sure. It DEI that did it 🤡

[@courtneyb6154]

In 1993 I worked inside the armory at Ft. Richardson Army Bsse, Anchorage, AK. I remember looking at an order sheet and seeing the "per unit" prices and thinking "WTF?" One hammer was $750. One garbage can $300. One entrenching tool $900. I asked my staff sergeant about the prices and all he told me was basically "that's just what we pay". One of my coworkers later told me that the money from all those crazily overpriced items went to black ops and was a way to hide the money being funneled out to those programs. I never believed any of that till these last couple of years. Something fishy WAS and IS definitely going on with all branches of the military and their expenditures.

[@MrDwarfpitcher]

You are probably onto something. I always thought that charity was the biggest money hole ever. I remember having worked over 50 hours for haitian aid after the earthquake and then trying to find out through what channels it goes. I needed multiple translation but I always found a dead end. But this stuff here is taxpayer funded. A big hole that cannot be plugged...

[@DaveInNH]

I was stationed at Fort Richardson in '93, too. 106th MI.

[@trentglaser3748]

Secrets are expensive

[@covrtdesign5279]

I was an Air Force F16 Crew Chief and was always blown away when we had to order any parts for the jet. The titanium rods that moved the nozzle open and closed on a GE engine was around $95,000 each, there as around 32 if I remember correctly. Government contracts are INSANE!

[@Sick_Puppy590]

I used to work for a vendor that supplied RF equipment to Northrop Grumman, our managers would up charge everything they could because it was “a government account”. Labor time would increase, prices would skyrocket, simply bc it was a contract account. This probably happens all the time

[@drumhaver223]

There's no 'probably' to it.

[@JasRoss]

You also just described America's healthcare system. "Oh, patient has solid medical insurance? Upcharge (2-10x) cost on everything!"

[@stavi82]

Ran some parts a few times when I worked in the motor pool. A starter for a 2004 Chevy Malibu was $150 off the shelf, but they charged our contractor $700.

[@losr98]

Used to be in charge of a single cost center in the air force. We only spent over 600K a month. Your minds would be blown at how much money we can waste without anyone batting an eye

[@FaithandPurpose828]

Not to mention all the fallout money (all branches) from early Aug to the end of Sep every year that MUST be spent on something. Complete travesty!

[@losr98]

@@FaithandPurpose828 right!? Everyone striving to implement some type of bullshit CPI to "save money" but then logistics hounds you to blow the rest of your budget before the end of the fiscal year.

[@RandB_Aquatics]

ladies and gentleman he is what is termed widespread corruption when it happens in africa

[@wgterry73ify]

Great you called him out.... Who's going to be held accountable?? No one !!!!

[@yiga4171]

This is why social media is good, I have no power, I'm not even American, but I just love seeing truth.

[@TheSlyFawkes]

And the powers that be hate it, which is why they try and censor the internet and get a hold on what can be said and can't be said. They are trying to make us the next China in the amount of censorship they push on us.

[@davidbeppler3032]

You did not see any truth here. Congressmen lie.

[@UncleBiccy]

This is why corporations are trying to replace search engines with AI tech

[@speedfastman]

This is just sensationalism bruh. A guy holding up a baggy and saying stuff isn't truth.

[@FirstFamilyCharger]

@@speedfastman Care to debate anything he said then? What was he not telling the truth about? What was so dishonest here? Or are you just being a contrarian?

[@turbotoommyguns1971]

It's amazing at how little he could care about that

[@MausMasher54]

Back in the Fall of 1976 while stationed at Grand Forks AFB ND, I was temp supply clerk, I ordered single-pull, single-throw Toggle switches, what I got was not, it was a suitable substitute from the USN, a bag of 100 each Male & Female Helmet Jacks for an F-14, at $1500 EACH, weighing less than a pound, that was the entire Squadron's Maintenance Budget in one Fuck-Up....Needless to say people were not happy, it all got resolved....And the paper sack weighing less than a pound was returned to the USN(not too sure if it was not personally delivered to the Sec Nav)....

[@michaelfuller244]

It's always been this way. When I was in the Navy, I worked for awhile in my squadrons toolroom. One day I was sent to a massive warehouse to purchase replacement tools. I was forced to pay $147.00 for a screwdriver that could have been purchased at NAPA Auto Parts for $12.00 to $15.00. I ask questions of my Chief, Master Chief and Chief Warrant Officer. I was reamed out, read the riot act, insulted and more. Not once did anyone even attempt to address my concerns.

[@JasRoss]

Same thing for electronic components. Military wants to just swap out entire units at a staggering cost vs actually producing simple fixes. First duty station was at a Navy Air Station in Florida. We would get lightning strikes at one of our radar sites at least once or twice a summer (tropical thunderstorm season). It would typically fry one of our power rectifiers on the radar system. Tech manuals insisted it be a LRU (line replaceable unit) at a staggering $50k per unit cost. I was an ET and trained to troubleshoot to the component level. Every single time, it was just a matter of a pair of diodes that went and cost about 20c each and an hour's worth of prep and solder time to swap out. I pitched it to the command and earned my first Navy Achievement Medal for saving over $250k over a couple years. At least they were receptive of cost savings. I have countless other stories of insane spending I have witnessed over my career.

[@DwayneHicksCpl]

The way he responded tells a million stories about just how tired is is of having to have dealt with that level of bs price gouging. It’s the same sad story in all countries and even worse with healthcare.

[@Sir-Cordyceps]

Not in Scandinavia or Germany.

[@MP-ky3hc]

Even the "charities" and "nonprofits" in America are corrupt!

[@Learner4FunLifePersona]

Wow! Michael Waltz is great. It’s comforting seeing a house of representatives member doing a good job that we can be proud of. It’s tiring being pessimistic over the growing federal deficit however it’s relieving seeing men in power doing something to reduce it.

[@jlb9577]

Exactly the same in the UK sadly. Basic items I could pick up from a hardware store for pennies cost £10s or £100s for no discernible reason. Private supply companies hold the military at ransom because as stated, if things don’t fly you’re at a strategic disadvantage. It’s sad watching people pay their taxes, which contributes to military spending, and it’s extorted by companies in this manner.