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· Mark, the veteranFact-check: Pass

We Found $4 Trillion. The Troops Didn't See It.

An after-action report on where the war money actually went - from a guy who wore the uniform.

An after-action report on where the war money actually went - from a guy who wore the uniform.
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Honey? Honey, you are not gonna believe this one.

The expensive kind, Marge. Pull up a chair. Here is the mission they sold us, and I believed it: fund the troops, support the warfighter, take care of the people who served. I wore the uniform for that promise. So tonight we are going to do a simple after-action report on where the money actually went.

Here is what actually happened. The Pentagon spent about four trillion dollars over five years. Four trillion. And the defense contractors, the Lockheeds of the world, took fifty four percent of it. Read that number again. Most of the war budget did not go to the soldier. It went to the shareholder.

And here is your personal receipt, because this is your money. Last year the average taxpayer paid about eighteen hundred and seventy dollars to defense contractors. That is roughly a third more than you paid to support actual veterans. You funded a contractor's very good quarter before you funded the V A. That is not a conspiracy. That is just the math.

$1,870 — per taxpayer to defense contractors - a third more than to veterans
Ohio Capital Journal

Now the casualties, and this is the part that makes me genuinely angry. While the contractors feasted, they are cutting tens of thousands of jobs at the V A. They are closing veteran health centers. They cut staffing on the veteran crisis line. And the disability raise for a wounded vet this year? Two point eight percent. The contractor got the four trillion. The vet got two point eight.

2.8 — the disability raise for a wounded veteran this year
VeteranLife

So here is the honest assessment, the part where facts are hard to argue with. We are not broke. We found four trillion dollars. We just decided, quietly, that the shareholder mattered more than the soldier. I am a chud. I will own that. But I can also still read a balance sheet, and that one is a disgrace.

THE HONEST ASSESSMENT

  • We're not broke - we found $4T
  • We chose the shareholder over the soldier
  • Facts are hard to argue with

And one last thing, because I think we forget it on purpose. The neighbor is not your enemy. The kid who flew that flag and came home to a food-stamp line, the vet waiting on a clinic that just closed, that is exactly who we fought to protect. We owe him a whole lot better than a busy signal. Anyway. Facts are hard to argue with. I'm Mark.

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