$1,300 coffee cups, 8,000% overpay for soap dispensers show waste as DOGE locks in on Pentagon

[Always in His Presence]

$1,300 coffee cups, 8,000% overpay for soap dispensers show waste as DOGE locks in on Pentagon​

President Donald Trump's team of zealous cost-cutters under Elon Musk will soon set their sights on the U.S.’s largest discretionary budget.

With an annual budget of $850 billion, the Pentagon has long been plagued by accusations of waste and inefficiency in its defense programs and recently failed its seventh straight audit.

"We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse," Trump predicted in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Sunday.

 

[Always in His Presence]

In October 2024, a two-year audit by the Defense Department Inspector General found Boeing overcharged the Air Force by 8,000% for soap dispensers that the service branch paid $149,072 over market price for. Of a selected 46 spare parts that were scrutinized by the audit, the report found the Air Force overpaid about $1 million for 12 of them for its C-17 transport planes.

That followed a 2018 congressional inquiry that revealed the Air Force was spending $1,300 for each reheatable coffee cup on its KC-10 aircraft – and then replacing them instead of repairing them when their handles broke. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, found the Air Force spent $32,000 replacing 25 cups.

 

[iluvatar5150]

$1,300 coffee cups, 8,000% overpay for soap dispensers show waste as DOGE locks in on Pentagon​

President Donald Trump's team of zealous cost-cutters under Elon Musk will soon set their sights on the U.S.’s largest discretionary budget.

With an annual budget of $850 billion, the Pentagon has long been plagued by accusations of waste and inefficiency in its defense programs and recently failed its seventh straight audit.

"We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse," Trump predicted in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Sunday.

"Seventh straight audit" == they're already being audited.

There are a lot of hypotheticals in that piece that would be interesting to see come to fruition, because lots of them - I'd venture to guess most of them, benefit Republican voters more then Dems. A lot of what they're describing would involve cuts to good-paying engineering jobs in suburban and rural areas.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Finally, we'll get those cuts to the defense budget I've wanted.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

In October 2024, a two-year audit by the Defense Department Inspector General found Boeing overcharged the Air Force by 8,000% for soap dispensers that the service branch paid $149,072 over market price for. Of a selected 46 spare parts that were scrutinized by the audit, the report found the Air Force overpaid about $1 million for 12 of them for its C-17 transport planes.

That followed a 2018 congressional inquiry that revealed the Air Force was spending $1,300 for each reheatable coffee cup on its KC-10 aircraft – and then replacing them instead of repairing them when their handles broke. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, found the Air Force spent $32,000 replacing 25 cups.

Again I ask, if this stuff was already found then what is DOGE for? This seems to be a theme of this administration. Taking credit for work already done and decisions already made. And I notice that the aforementioned congressional inquiry came out in 2018. Who was president in 2018? (Psst... It wasn't Biden or Obama). Why didn't the future convicted felon do something about it then?

And that's the thing, right? ALL of us agree that if these reports and audits are finding this stuff certainly something needs to be done about. We need to figure out why boeing over-charged and if it was an intentional illegal act they need to be sanctioned and/or prosecuted or at the least be made to repay the overcharge. We need to figure out why the reheatable mugs were 1300 each, why they break so easy, find a replacement or eliminate them altogether. We all agree with that or much more. I bet a lot of Dems are fully behind the president on this one thing at least and would gladly work with him WITHIN the law.

But do we also agree that we don't fix that by firing, arresting and jailing all the employees and inspector generals and burning down the Pentagon?

 

[Pommer]

Again I ask, if this stuff was already found then what is DOGE for? This seems to be a theme of this administration. Taking credit for work already done and decisions already made. And I notice that the aforementioned congressional inquiry came out in 2018. Who was president in 2018? (Psst... It wasn't Biden or Obama). Why didn't the future convicted felon do something about it then?

DOGE exists to put agencies on “double-secret-probation”.

 

[KCfromNC]

DOGE exists to put agencies on “double-secret-probation”.

And steal taxpayer data, apparently.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Again I ask, if this stuff was already found then what is DOGE for? This seems to be a theme of this administration. Taking credit for work already done and decisions already made. And I notice that the aforementioned congressional inquiry came out in 2018. Who was president in 2018? (Psst... It wasn't Biden or Obama). Why didn't the future convicted felon do something about it then?

Good question: The audit happened six years ago - and neither Trump (the one better than all the Democratic Candidates), nor Joe (the one with a 31% approval rating) did anything did anything about it.

I wonder why? Could the Congress with an approval rating even lower than the Democratic Party have done anything?

 

[Pommer]

Good question: The audit happened six years ago - and neither Trump (the one better than all the Democratic Candidates), nor Joe did anything ( the future convicted felon) did anything about it.

Did you get a trip in Obama’s Time Machine?

 

[Always in His Presence]

Did you get a trip in Obama’s Time Machine?

Did you?

 

[Friedrich Rubinstein]

I'm just a foreigner looking at it from the outside, but isn't the expiring budget the underlying issue here? As long as the Use-It-or-Lose-It budget rules are in place, every agency is incentivized to spend every last dollar they have, even if not needed for anything useful.
I don't think the Pentagon pays $150,000 for soap dispensers because they're too stupid to find cheaper ones, but because they are unable to transfer leftover funding into the next fiscal year.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

Good question: The audit happened six years ago - and neither Trump (the one better than all the Democratic Candidates), nor Joe did anything ( the future convicted felon) did anything about it.

I love this, "I know you are, but what am I?" energy!

I wonder why? Could the Congress with an approval rating even lower than the Democratic Party have done anything?

Rent free!

 

[Pommer]

Did you?

Only if I’m typing this in 2016.

 

[Pommer]

I'm just a foreigner looking at it from the outside, but isn't the expiring budget the underlying issue here? As long as the Use-It-or-Lose-It budget rules are in place, every agency is incentivized to spend every last dollar they have, even if not needed for anything useful.
I don't think the Pentagon pays $150,000 for soap dispensers because they're too stupid to find cheaper ones, but because they are unable to transfer leftover funding into the next fiscal year.

We’re so rich, we can afford the biggest military! (Which we need to keep being so rich), which costs money…building up the military and looking to strut our stuff!

Yet, “Who’s going to stop me?” is not generally a practical political “philosophy” for very long.

 

[Nithavela]

Are they going to put the entire US military on furlough during the audit?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Weren’t the soap dispensers and coffee mugs that expensive because they had to be flight qualified?

 

[Nithavela]

Weren’t the soap dispensers and coffee mugs that expensive because they had to be flight qualified?

The answer is capitalism.

How the Pentagon falls victim to price gouging by military contractors

Almost half of the Department of Defense's massive budget will go to defense contractors. Experts in the field say those contractors are overcharging the Pentagon.

www.cbsnews.com

This isn't really news. This stuff has been reported on years ago.

I am curious why one would need a special "flight qualified" cup, though. I am assuming that they are not for use on fighter jets during dogfights, but rather for refreshment of crew during long distance flights. It's been a while since I've flown, but what would keep air force from using the paper cups of commercial airlines?

Or get this one.

Amazon.com

 

[iluvatar5150]

The answer is capitalism.

How the Pentagon falls victim to price gouging by military contractors

Almost half of the Department of Defense's massive budget will go to defense contractors. Experts in the field say those contractors are overcharging the Pentagon.

www.cbsnews.com

This isn't really news. This stuff has been reported on years ago.

I am curious why one would need a special "flight qualified" cup, though. I am assuming that they are not for use on fighter jets during dogfights, but rather for refreshment of crew during long distance flights. It's been a while since I've flown, but what would keep air force from using the paper cups of commercial airlines?

Or get this one.

Amazon.com

The "coffee cup" was more of a self-contained thermos/electric kettle:

Air Force puts the kibosh on the $1,300 coffee cup

The Air Force has temporarily halted purchases of the controversial $1,280 “hot cup” used to warm liquids on cargo and other aircraft amid a growing controversy over their price.

www.airforcetimes.com

So you've got a device that is 1.) electric, 2.) heats up, 3.) holds liquid, 4.) is portable and hand-held, and 5.) interfaces with a bespoke onboard system that's close to 50 years old. That's a lot of ways in which it could fail and cause serious problems in-flight in addition to the other conditions it has to be tested for like rapid decompression, wild temperature swings, turbulence, etc. That certification takes a bunch of engineering, testing, and documentation with only a tiny volume of products over which to amortize those costs. At least for the KC-10, only 60 planes were ever made. How many cups do you need per plane at any one time? A dozen? Ideally (though I imagine unlikely), the same cup is used on a few different planes, but even then, you're still only talking about a few thousand in existence at any one time.

 

[Nithavela]

The "coffee cup" was more of a self-contained thermos/electric kettle:

Air Force puts the kibosh on the $1,300 coffee cup

The Air Force has temporarily halted purchases of the controversial $1,280 “hot cup” used to warm liquids on cargo and other aircraft amid a growing controversy over their price.

www.airforcetimes.com

So you've got a device that is 1.) electric, 2.) heats up, 3.) holds liquid, 4.) is portable and hand-held, and 5.) interfaces with a bespoke onboard system that's close to 50 years old. That's a lot of ways in which it could fail and cause serious problems in-flight in addition to the other conditions it has to be tested for like rapid decompression, wild temperature swings, turbulence, etc. That certification takes a bunch of engineering, testing, and documentation with only a tiny volume of products over which to amortize those costs. At least for the KC-10, only 60 planes were ever made. How many cups do you need per plane at any one time? A dozen? Ideally (though I imagine unlikely), the same cup is used on a few different planes, but even then, you're still only talking about a few thousand in existence at any one time.

Still seems like an overcomplicated solution. I would suggest either a thermos or going without coffee for a while.

But of course, when compared to the defense budget, this is all a sideshow. The real waste of money is in the industry price gouging the pentagon.

 

[wing2000]

Finally, we'll get those cuts to the defense budget I've wanted.

Let's see if more than "$1,300 coffee cups" are actually targeted.
The F-35 for example....