Reply #5: Good point. Who audits Homeland Security? Is their budget "hush hush"? [View All]

[McCamy Taylor]

This would be an excellent place to hide "slush" money just like the Pentagon budget, if the actual spending of Homeland Security is considered Top Secret for purposes of national security. And the administration would want to pad that budget with a lot of stuff that does not really belong there, too. Make it a great big budget like the Pentagon so that cost overruns get attributed to the usual government waste.

Damn, if it turned out that the feds were unprepared for a hurricane not just because they were morons but also because they were skimming money off the top---and Brownie was put in charge to give them plausible idiocy---it would be criminal.

Later: did a few searches. Back iat its inception, Homeland Security had everything but oversight. It had a big budget a big staff lots of WH involvement---and its oversight was divided between a gazillion different Congressional subcommittes. It also planned to farm out lots of "soft" jobs in biotect and information research, perfect fronts if you wanted to be able to send money other places. So yeah, I can see how someone might wonder where Homeland Security Money was going.

Here are a few links:

http://www.homelandsec.org/publications.asp?pubid=58

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/dhs04p.pdf

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RS21270.pdf

Hmm? Is this why Tom Ridge went bye bye? I think I will send an email to Waxman, even though the poor GAO is soooo busy.