Wednesday, April 3, 2013

DOD's $900mn Accounting Error: Fun with additional SNAFU context

Fun with additional SNAFU context

by caidid Posted on April 3, 2013

http://gunpowderandlead.org/2013/04/fun-with-additional-snafu-context/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GunpowderLead+%28Gunpowder+%26+Lead%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Earlier today, Rue illustrated the horror of the Army’s $900,000,000 ‘accounting error’ by calculating what that much money could have bought in terms of various weapons systems, and by comparing it to the total defense expenditures of other whole countries.

I posted a link to Rue’s piece on Facebook, and my friend Kristin commented, “Kind of puts that whole “cut PBS funding because every little bit counts” red herring into perspective.” Which got me thinking: just for funsies, what if we take that number outside the completely-overblown-and-disproportionate-to-all-other-facets-of-reality context of the Defense budget? How much would $900,000,000 get us in other parts of our own federal budget? I took a peek through various other Departments’ budgets to see, sampling from a wide range of programs. (Estimates are based on the White House’s FY13 budget).

I’m totally not an accountant, so some of my calculations might be off, but from what I could figure here is a sampling of what other departments/agencies could fund with the amount of money Defense essentially loses in its couch cushions:

Agency/Program  How Far $900,000,000 Would Go There    
Head Start      6 weeks
NASA Exploration        3 months       
Secret Service  6 months       
USAID Operations        7 months       
Fish & Wildlife Service 8 months       
ATF     9 months       
Federal Marshal Service 9 months       
Dept. of Education Race to the Top Program      11 months      
Federal Work Study Program      11 months      
Small Business Administration   1 year 
Millennium Challenge Corporation        1 year 
Dept. of State Non-proliferation, Anti-terrorist, Demining Programs     17 months      
Smithsonian Institution 17 months      
VA Prosthetic Research  18 months      
Bureau of Labor Statistics      18 months      
OSHA    19 months      
NASA Aeronautics        20 months      
Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Housing for the Elderly  2 years
Peace Corps     29 months      
Dept. of Justice Juvenile Justice & Child Safety Programs       3 years
Dept. of Labor Veterans Employment & Training Program   3.5 years      
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS)       4 years
Dept. of Commerce Economic Development Administration   4 years
National Endowment for the Arts 6 years
National Endowment for the Humanities   6 years
Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Housing for People with Disabilities     6 years
Dept. of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs 7 years
National Galleries of Art       7.5 years      
Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights       23 years       

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