At the end of a fiscal year – usually the last day of June – that’s when big spenders go on a spree. You know how it works. If anything is left in the till, chances are the company’s bean counters will reduce the next year’s budget somewhat. The folks down at the pentagon are pretty good at the game and they made it quite evident last month. They spent every last nickel – about sixty billion dollars worth of nickels, or thereabouts.

Here’s what that number looks like on the debit side of the ledger – $ 60,000,000,000.

The Air Force enjoyed one of its best months by using up more than 36 billion dollars of American taxpayers’ hard earned money. The Army spent a mere (admitted) $ 4,887,495,941 – but the Navy made up for it by spending almost 15 billion dollars in that final month – about what it costs to build one of those “super carriers”.

June 2nd General Dynamics, San Diego, CA $ 20,745,556
Electric Boat Corp., Groton, CT $ 13,228,560
S. T. Wooten Corp., Wilson, NC $ 9,975,000

June 3rd Kellogg, Brown & Root, Houston, TX $ 113,824,554
Guam MACC Builders, Honolulu, HI $ 39,699,700
Olin Corp., East Alton, IL $ 27,681,245
American Rheinmetall, Stafford, VA $ 26,037,084
The Boeing Co., Seattle, WA $ 19,857,582
Rockwell Collins, Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA $ 15,947,962
King Aerospace, Addison, TX $ 9,458,209
BAE Systems, Jacksonville, FL $ 9,270,465

June 4th Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, TX $ 90,914,168
Seaward Marine Corp., Chesapeake, VA $ 12,946.707
Rolls Royce Corp., Indianapolis, IN $ 9,471,821

June 5th United Technologies, East Hartford, CT $ 113,379,349
The Boeing Co., Seattle, WA $ 28,688,558
Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, FL $ 20,000,000
G4S-SJC LLC, Fort Worth, TX $ 19,835,665
BAE Systems, San Francisco, CA $ 13,096,898
Rockwell Collins Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA $ 11,916,219

June 6th Hewlett Packard, Herndon, VA $5,741,792,250
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, TX $ 122,099,075
BAE Systems, Norfolk, VA $ 15,060,606

June 9th General Dynamics, San Diego, CA $ 64,056,766
Science Applications, et al, McLean, VA $ 10,553,653
AH Environmental Consultants, Newport News, VA $ 10,000,000
Navmar Applied Sciences Corp., Warminster, PA $ 7,958,350

June 10th Airborne Systems Ltd., Bridgend, UK $ 7,750,856

June 11th SRA International Inc., Fairfax, VA $ 96,000,000

June 12th Armtech Countermeasures, Coachella, CA $ 20,928,143
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, MO $ 10,236,136
Form Fit and Function, LLC, Paterson, NJ $ 9,809,330

June 13th Northrop Grumman, San Diego, CA $ 61,326,794
General Dynamics, San Diego, CA $ 23,500,000
General Dynamics, Bath, ME $ 11,715,565

June 16th L-3 Unidyne Inc., Norfolk, VA $ 36,053,019
Vista Research, Arlington, VA $ 8,381,917

June 17th Kollsman Inc., Merrimack, NH $ 56,887,669
Triumph Gear Systems, Park City, UT $ 55,775,371
BAE Systems, San Diego, CA $ 20,524,009
Lockheed Martin, Owego, NY $ 11,333,603

June 18th KMEA MACTEC JV, San Diego, CA $ 30,000,000
General Dynamics, Jacksonville, FL $ 20,938,761
Scientific Research Corp., Atlanta, GA $ 7,831,864

June 19th Kellogg, Brown and Root, Houston, TX $ 224,153,913
Lockheed Martin Corp., Moorestown, NJ $ 57,863,799
Head Inc., Columbus, OH $ 19,872,983
Lockheed Martin Corp., Owego. NY $ 11,638,343
URS Group, Inc., San Antonio, TX $ 10,819,000
Northrop Grumman Systems, Linthicum, MD $ 8,363,501
BAE Systems, Louisville, KY $ 7,809,034

June 20th Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, CT $ 115,705,556
Bell Helicopter, Fort Worth, TX $ 44,667,989
Tetrad Dignity Integrity, District of Columbia $ 7,801,515
Systems Technology, Fredericksburg, VA $ 7,386,653
Syzygy Technologies, San Diego, CA $ 7,077,042

June 23rd Fluor Federal Solutions, Greenville, SC $ 132,140,027
Raytheon Co., El Segundo, CA $ 14,899,999

June 24th Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, TX $ 84,923,294
Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, AZ $ 73,442,290
DynCorp International LLC, Fort Worth, TX $ 37,859,396
MECTS Services JV, Fairfax, VA $ 16,283,732
Maune, Belangia, Faulkenberry, New Bern, NC $ 15,000,000
KTU&A, San Diego, CA $ 15,000,000
Lockheed Martin, Moorestown, NJ $ 12,171,921
Lockheed Martin Corp., Manassas, VA $ 10,607,674

June 25th Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, AZ $ 251,268,586
American Systems Corp., Chantilly, VA $ 15,000,000
Advanced Technology, Anderson, SC $ 15,000,000
The Boeing Co., Seattle, WA $ 14,863,552
BAE Systems, San Diego, CA $ 14,772,006
Raytheon Co., Portsmouth, RI $ 14,078,807

June 26th Northrop Grumman, San Diego, CA $ 63,070,969
Northrop Grumman, Bethpage, NY $ 8,258,253
Rockwell Collins, Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA $ 7,694,320
Innova Systems International, San Diego, CA $ 6,663,365

June 27th Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, AZ $ 275,434,620
Raytheon Co., Tewksbury, MA $ 33,176,807
Serco Inc., Reston, VA $ 31,244,653
Raytheon Co., McKinney, TX $ 19,679,000
Exelis Inc. Clifton, NJ $ 15,262,451
Lockheed Martin Corp., Moorestown, NJ $ 13,561,788
BAE Systems, Rockville, MD $ 10,737,652
Northrop Grumman, San Diego, CA $ 8,465,734
Maersk Line, Ltd., Norfolk, VA $ 7,103,568
June 30th Northrop Grumman Systems, Bethpage, NY $3,650,300,362
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, MO $1,939,160,819
Construction Development Services, et al, Norfolk, VA $ 95,000,000
John C. Grimberg Co., Rockville, MD $ 44,200,000
Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Honolulu, HI $ 26,615,298
The Boeing Co., St. Louis, MO $ 22,200.000
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, TX $ 18,369,619
BAE Systems, Santa Clara, CA $ 17,190,479
General Dynamics, Fairfax, VA $ 15,901,781
DPR Construction Co., et al, Atlanta, GA $ 14,810,000
Choctaw Manufacturing, McAlester, OK $ 14,247,484
Sikorsky Aircraft, Stratford, CT $ 14,000,000
Millennium Engineering, Arlington, VA $ 7,528,016

So far we’ve accounted for the Air Force, the Navy and the Army. Here’s more of the scorecard:

Air Force $ 36,332,713,274
Navy $ 14,736,846,743
Army $ 4,887,495,941
Defense Logistics Agency $ 1,485,866,565
Missile Defense Agency $ 1,359,084,183
U. S. Coast Guard $ 76,500,000
Defense Health Agency $ 64,746,604
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency $ 27,719,072
Washington Headquarters Services $ 15,360,560
U. S. Special Operations Command $ 10,500,000
Defense Threat Reduction Agency $ 8,152,103

Total admitted for June 2014 $ 59,004,985,045

Fifty nine billion dollars!

What the heck happens to all that money? More than half this country’s population receives welfare assistance of one kind or another, yet a trillion dollars will be spent this year on “defense” by the folks at the pentagon.

We have the Atlantic Ocean on one side of us and the Pacific Ocean on the other side – and that’s all the defense we’ll ever need. Never in a million years could a foreign aggressor breach either of those two natural barriers, but those in authority insist upon taking taxpayer money, that could be used to rebuild our economy, and waste it instead by transferring it to military-industrial moguls.

About ten years ago, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta advised us to increase the number of U.S. container-handling ports from 60 to 200. Such a strategy would create jobs, lower the costs of goods to the consumer by having containers delivered to nearby terminals, cut back on long haul deliveries thereby saving wear and tear on our highway system, and actually increase profits for those transporting and handling these goods.

A more recent Secretary of Transportation, Raymond “Ray” LaHood, citing the importance and potential of “short sea shipping,” went so far as to rename the concept “America’s Marine Highway Program.” Jones Act vessels, he knew, would stimulate our declining economy by reviving manufacturing facilities in this country, enable U.S. consumers along this Marine Highway to acquire reasonably priced U.S.-made goods, and reduce the numbers of unemployed significantly.

That trillion dollars we’re spending on unneeded “defense” would easily pull our chestnuts out of the fire. Secretary Mineta’s 200 container-handling ports and Secretary LaHood’s America’s Marine Highway Program would have seen the light of day by now if we had honest and decent folks down in Washington. We have the Jones Act; we’ve patented profitable container handling systems; and we’ve patented profitable Jones Act container ships. But we don’t have responsible leadership.