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Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

reuters.com

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Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#71

Post by myvoiceismypass »

splitrocket wrote: post #32
h1fra wrote: post #15

they will probably announce a new $5B contract with Palantir next week

It will not be announced. Fun fact: the current Republican administration was pushing a budget that substantially increased the federal deficit. The one that was finally approved is still a massive budget deficit increase. Obama reduced the deficit by nearly half during his presidency, the current FY2025 budget has authorized a $1.9 trillion deficit (6.2% of GDP), with reconciliation instructions potentially allowing…

Pretty frustrating to be nearly 50 and this is literally the exact playbook over the last half century. Reagan / Bush / Trump - 20 years of absolute shit policy (and results) when it comes to the deficit that everyone cares about.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#72

Post by TrapLord_Rhodo »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #50
toolz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which isn't ideal, but easily better than the pentagon that has literally never passed a full audit since they started auditing them in 2018. I'm a huge fan of musk's company's, but I don't want my public tax dollars ever choosing winners/losers

Your public tax dollars picked Tesla and SpaceX as winners vs losers, through billions of dollars of subsidies.

[flagged]

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#73

Post by danparsonson »

aqme28 wrote: post #46
yuppii wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are comparing existing, actual waste with your "imaginary" waste that might or might not happen... Go easy on the kool aid.

I'm no fan of the Pentagon and certainly think it's a money sieve, but why are you asserting that this $5.1B is "actual waste" and also not imaginary?

They're not, they're saying that GP imagines genuine waste-saving will happen, when in fact it's more likely to be fabricated "waste" conjured up by Elmo and his army of teenagers.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#74

Post by whalesalad »

ibejoeb wrote: post #21

Kinda amusing that the general sentiment so far, in a forum filled with technology expertise, is that there is certainly waste in these budgets. But, when discussing the overall trend of cutting programs in other fields where the majority doesn't have that expertise, the conclusion is the opposite.

Part of existing in society is being pragmatic, reasonable, and not having black or white thinking.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#75

Post by mikeocool »

ibejoeb wrote: post #21

Kinda amusing that the general sentiment so far, in a forum filled with technology expertise, is that there is certainly waste in these budgets. But, when discussing the overall trend of cutting programs in other fields where the majority doesn't have that expertise, the conclusion is the opposite.

I have experience in technology and biomedical research.

IT consultants, particularly from the large firms, are very overpriced for the value they provide. Blindly cutting NIH grants (even some of the ones that sound silly on paper) and funding for research institutions is doing great harm to progress in modern medicine.

Multiple things can be true at once.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#76

Post by mupuff1234 »

cpursley wrote: post #67
yuppii wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are comparing existing, actual waste with your "imaginary" waste that might or might not happen... Go easy on the kool aid.

I don't totally trust this DOGE crew and think we should keep a hawks eye on them but the whole "they are cutting waste so they can funnel the money to themselves!" conspiracy theories making the rounds are pretty bizarre... And to what end, aren't many of these people already extremely wealthy? I sure hope I'm wrong.

Not totally bizarre given some actually bizarre stuff like trump & malania crypto coins or DJT.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#77

Post by InDubioProRubio »

cpursley wrote: post #67
yuppii wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are comparing existing, actual waste with your "imaginary" waste that might or might not happen... Go easy on the kool aid.

I don't totally trust this DOGE crew and think we should keep a hawks eye on them but the whole "they are cutting waste so they can funnel the money to themselves!" conspiracy theories making the rounds are pretty bizarre... And to what end, aren't many of these people already extremely wealthy? I sure hope I'm wrong.

You do not become that, by quitting on the waver thin mint.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#78

Post by pjc50 »

cpursley wrote: post #67
yuppii wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are comparing existing, actual waste with your "imaginary" waste that might or might not happen... Go easy on the kool aid.

I don't totally trust this DOGE crew and think we should keep a hawks eye on them but the whole "they are cutting waste so they can funnel the money to themselves!" conspiracy theories making the rounds are pretty bizarre... And to what end, aren't many of these people already extremely wealthy? I sure hope I'm wrong.

Current budget appears to be (via https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tax-cut... )

> $5.3 trillion in deficit-financed tax cuts (the combination of $3.8 trillion of tax cuts assumed to be “costless” under a current policy baseline plus $1.5 trillion in additional deficits permitted), deficit increases of $521 billion on defense and immigration spending, a minimum of $4 billion in spending cuts, and an increase in the debt limit of up to $5 trillion.

So savings plus new borrowing will be funded to tax cuts, which will likely prioritize those already on higher incomes, and corporations.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#79

Post by kenjackson »

jghn wrote: post #39
foota wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of it's probably that the military is the largest discretionary spending in the US, and it's not especially popular, unlike say NASA or the NPS.

Yes, the scale is a huge part of it. If some program has a $1mil budget and you were to tell me that 25% of it was wasted. Well who cares? $250k in the US budget is a rounding error on a rounding error. But if you were to tell me that 25% of the Pentagon's budget was waste? That's a big deal. Yet somehow a certain segment of our population tends to focus on the small fries.

What is waste in this context? Is it the delta from perfect efficiency? Is it working on things that have no value regardless of efficiency?

I worry that we’re not that good at measuring these things. And I suspect the measurement of waste is often considered waste.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#80

Post by dwater »

itsoktocry wrote: post #57
NickC25 wrote: post #8

All fine and dandy until one realizes that the pentagon's budget is measured in the trillions, and this sort of deal probably doesn't even deal with mission critical stuff. That said, we do waste a ton of money on consultants, and the pentagon needs to trim its budget. Should also be noted that Pete Hegseth is a fucking moron, and some of these cuts probably hurt our national security readiness.

> we do waste a ton of money on consultants I bet the median skill of a Deloitte consultant is higher than that of the average government office worker.

The trend for decades has been shrinking the public workforce and replacing them with contractors, because Republicans have said that the private sector is more efficient. So the average government office worker is not a tech, they are a contract officer. The government does not have these skills internally at the level necessary, if they want this work done they have to contract it out. And if these contracts get cancelled that money will get spent with another contractor, and given how this administration has been acting it will a contractor that bends the knee and not one that the president has publicly voiced animosity for.
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