Newsweek Warns Over Social Security, Ignores Pentagon's '$2.2 Trillion' Accounting Blunder
Newsweek breathlessly reports on 39 states receiving warnings over 'Social Security benefit rules,' implying fiscal peril if things aren't tightened up. This pearl-clutching over state-level administrative minutiae conveniently ignores the far more egregious and colossal financial indiscretions embedded in federal spending. For context, the Pentagon has, for years, failed its audits and, as
reported by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2017, could not account for $2.2 trillion in transactions. That’s trillion, with a 'T'. So, while states are purportedly on the hook for Social Security paperwork, the defense budget—the recipient of vast sums of taxpayer money, often funneled to military aid for foreign nations—operates with what appears to be an institutionalized 'oops,
where did that go?' policy. The concern for 'fiscal responsibility' (which sounds so earnest when applied to benefits for aging citizens) seems to vanish when the topic shifts to defense spending or, indeed, the billions funneled as military assistance to governments like Netanyahu's. Perhaps stricter accountability measures for our defense contractors and perpetual war machine should precede
warnings to states about their senior citizens' benefits.