US Government Pays $51,600 for $300 Trash Can As American Debt Crosses $32,000,000,000,000: Report
A recent report from an American think tank reveals that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) paid an exorbitant amount of $51,600 to aerospace giant Boeing for a trash receptacle that originally cost $300. The trash container in question was used in the E-3 Sentry, a surveillance and radar plane based on the civilian airliner Boeing 707. Prior to 2010, Boeing charged an average of $300 for this item. However, when the Boeing 707 fell out of use in the United States, the trash can was no longer considered a “commercial” item, which allowed Boeing to increase its price significantly.
The report, published by Responsible Statecraft, the online magazine for the Quincy Institute, cites an anonymous source from the weapons industry. This revelation follows an investigation by CBS News, which found that Raytheon Technologies raised the cost of its stinger missiles from $25,000 to over $400,000 per unit.
In response to these findings, a bipartisan group of Senators, led by Bernie Sanders, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, demanding an update on the DoD’s efforts to investigate corporate price gouging. The senators expressed their concern that the DoD cannot continue to rely on Congress and taxpayers to fund record military spending while failing to hold private corporations accountable for excessive pricing.
These reports emerge at a time when the total U.S. debt has surpassed $32 trillion, with an alarming increase of $572 billion in the national debt over the past two weeks alone.
