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Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, January 20th,
2023. It's 1123 in the morning Central Time here in Texas, United States of America, where I find myself this morning. I also find
myself deeply dismayed but hardly surprised at the latest news out of the Pentagon. Well, since 1992,
the Pentagon has been obligated by federal law to undergo an audit so that it can account for
all the money it spends and account for all the
property it owns. The audits were suspended from 1994 to 2017. The reason for the suspension of
the audit was the Pentagon spends more money than it knows how to account for and owns more property
than it knows where it is, so it can't comply with the audit. In the Trump administration,
the audits were resumed. So the audit started in 2017. There have been five audits from 2017
to 2022. Same result in all five audits. There is about $220 billion, with a B, dollars worth of equipment or cash, but more
likely than not equipment, that the Pentagon cannot account for. This, of course, is dangerous
because we don't know where this equipment is and in whose hands it may be. And it's reprehensible
because this comes from taxpayer dollars. Aha! Not money borrowed in the taxpayer's name, even though money, of course, is fungible.
But taxpayer dollars.
The federal government collects about $3.5 trillion a year in taxes.
The mandatory money that goes out, of course, is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, programs like that, and Department of Defense. Now,
the Congress votes on the Department of Defense, but it always increases it. The latest Department
of Defense budget was $780 billion. That is more than the defense budgets of the next,
that's a bird near me, I'm outside behind a lovely hotel in downtown Austin. That is more money, $780 billion, than the budgets of the next 12 countries We can't find $220 billion of it over the past
five years. It's not $220 billion per year. We do have 900 foreign defense installations.
It's hard to find a country other than North Korea, Russia, and China, maybe a few in the
Middle East where we don't have defense installations.
I remember once I was on a trip to the Sinai Peninsula with a friend who was an amateur
archaeologist. We were out in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden we were approached
by five soldiers. And I thought, who are these guys? They were Americans. What are you doing
here in the middle of the Sinai Peninsula, in the middle of Egypt?
And they point to me and say, well, not far from here are a few hundred more of us.
Judge, don't tell anybody. This was 15 years ago.
But it's an example of the wastage of American dollars and human life that goes on in the Defense Department. Will anybody claim credit
or responsibility for the inability to put their fingers on $220 billion of expenses and equipment
from the Trump administration to the Biden administration and the Department of Defense?
Don't hold your breath. More as we get it.
Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.