President Joe Biden’s Deputy Secretary for Defense Kathleen Hicks got grilled by Hollywood star Jon Stewart over the size of DOD’s budget and why many service members are on food stamps. Hicks got all arrogant trying to explain away why the Pentagon can’t pass an audit and it went south from there.
HICKS: So, an audit is exactly what you just described, which is, “Do I know what was delivered to which place? The ability to pass an audit or, the fact that the DoD has not passed an audit is not suggestive of waste, fraud, and abuse. That is completely false, right there. So–
STEWART: So, what it is suggestive of?
HICKS: It’s suggestive that we can’t–we don’t have an accurate inventory that we can pull up of what we have where. That is not the same as saying, “We can’t do that because waste, fraud, and abuse has occurred.”
STEWART: So, in my world, that’s waste.
HICKS: How is that waste?
STEWART: If I give you a billion dollars and you can’t tell me what happened to it, that to me is wasteful. That means you are not responsible.
But if you can’t tell me where it went, then what am I supposed to think? And when there has been reporting–I mean, this is not, look, I’m not saying this is on you and that you caused this.
HICKS: I’m pretty sure I didn’t cause it.
STEWART: But I think it’s a tough argument to make that an $850 billion budget to an organization that can’t pass an audit and tell you where that money went.
I think most people would consider that somewhere in the realm of waste, fraud, or abuse because they would wonder why that money isn’t well accounted for.
And, especially when they see food insecurity on military bases and they see–
HICKS: Do you wanna talk about that because that’s a good –we should be talking–I kind of understand where you’re trying to go, other than the dollars, which really bother you [laughs].
STEWART: I think it doesn’t really bother me. I think it’s all connected.
HICKS: Ok, tell me. Tell me that story. Tell me how you’re thinking about that.
STEWART: When I see a State Department get a certain amount of money and a military budget be ten times that, and I see a struggle within government to get people like, more basic services, and then that department that got that–I mean, we got out of 20 years of war and the Pentagon got a $50 billion raise. Like, that’s shocking to me.
Now, I may not understand exactly the ins and outs, and the incredible magic of an audit.
But I’m a human being who lives on the Earth and can’t figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps.
Like, to me, that’s f*cking corruption. I’m sorry.
And, if like, that blows your mind and you think that’s like a crazy agenda for me to have, I really think that that’s institutional thinking, and that it’s not looking at the day-to-day reality of the people that you call the greatest dighting force in the world.
So, again, I get back to this idea of like, I’m not looking to pick a fight with you.
But I am surprised at the reaction to these questions are, “You don’t know what an audit is, bucko.” Like, that’s just weird to me.
Exchange between @jonstewart and @DepSecDef Kathleen Hicks on the defense budget: “I can’t figure out how $850 billion to a department means that the rank and file still have to be on food stamps. To me, that’s fucking corruption.” pic.twitter.com/2pu0geUyRE
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 7, 2023
