The Pentagon just flunked its seventh consecutive audit, and yet, in the grand tradition of Washington spin, officials are calling this failure “progress.” With an $824 billion budget, you’d think someone at the Department of Defense could manage to keep track of where the money goes. Instead, we’re left with vague assurances about “turning a corner” and “momentum” toward fixing their financial chaos. If this were a private company, heads would roll—but in D.C., this is just another day at the office.
For context, of the Pentagon’s 28 reporting entities audited, only 9 managed to get a passing grade with an unmodified opinion, while 15 were so far off the mark they received disclaimers of opinion, meaning auditors couldn’t even begin to form a judgment on their books. That’s like submitting a college essay so incomprehensible your professor can’t even grade it.
Michael McCord, the Pentagon’s comptroller, assures us they’re working toward a clean audit by 2028. “Momentum is on our side,” McCord declared, as though failing more than half the categories in an audit is something to celebrate. It’s worth noting that this “momentum” comes after decades of failures, massive spending, and countless reforms that have yet to produce results.
McCord also tried to put a positive spin on the debacle by comparing it to a report card. “If someone had a report card that is half good and half not good, I don’t know that you call the student or the report card a failure,” he told reporters. Well, if that student were holding $824 billion of taxpayer money and couldn’t explain where half of it went, you’d absolutely call it a failure—and probably expel them.
Let’s be real: this isn’t just about bookkeeping. This is about a culture of unaccountability in Washington. The Pentagon’s inability to account for its budget should infuriate every taxpayer, especially when politicians on the left love to lecture Americans about “fair shares” and “funding priorities.” While progressive lawmakers obsess over whether the Pentagon spends too much, they conveniently ignore whether it spends wisely.
Here’s the kicker: the Pentagon insists this process is leading to “better-supported warfighters.” But how does financial mismanagement support the troops? Every dollar unaccounted for is a dollar that could’ve gone toward equipment, training, or veteran care.
Accountability matters. If the federal government can’t manage its most critical responsibilities, it has no business demanding more of your paycheck. As President-elect Trump has emphasized, draining the swamp includes holding agencies like the Department of Defense accountable. If the Pentagon is serious about fixing this, it’s time to get tough, demand results, and show taxpayers that their money isn’t vanishing into a bureaucratic black hole. A day of reckoning is coming for the Pentagon, and it’s coming fast.
