The flushing sound you just heard is $86 million going down the drain. That's how much money a joint Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Pentagon project poured into an aircraft that was supposed to fly over Afghanistan as part of a drug enforcement program. According to a Justice Department's investigative report the plane, "has never flown over Afghanistan". For seven years the program consistently missed deadline after deadline and repeatedly went agonizingly over budget (the project was originally slated to cost $22 million). The plane now sits on jacks in a Delaware airport, a testament to government dysfunction.
Of course, the finger-pointing goes on between the DEA and the Pentagon as to who is responsible for this mess. And that is where American taxpayers must insist on accountability. Sadly, wasteful government spending has become commonplace in Pentagon and DEA programs. What is missing is holding the parties responsible for the wasted $millions to account. All too often accountability disappears under investigations that never have results. Or government officials who promise to "look into it" and, of course, never do. This week, the DEA issued a statement that it ,"welcomes recommendations that makes us better". I have a recommendation: resign or get fired, but pay the price for wasting taxpayer dollars. As you fill out your tax returns this year you are permitted to scream about a government that wastes so much of your money.