Black Budget's Big Spending

Transcript

Hi everybody. Welcome back to Fiscal Friday. This is Best Buyers with a generation empowered. February is Black History Month, so today we're discussing the government's top secret black budget. It's a topic more serious than most, so we've enlisted special guests to help us report four facts about this confidential spending.

Let's hit the streets. The black budget is the amount annual amount of money the United States spends on government spy agencies known as the National Intelligence Program. In 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden brought this information to light when he presented it to the Washington Post. Representative Peter Welch said revelations of individual agency budgets was not just news to Americans, but also most of Congress. President Obama refused to disclose spending medals for the Secret Intelligence Agency in our 2016 budget.

However, the office of the director of national intelligence disclosed the administration's spending request is 53.9 billion. Jesus, up from 50.4 billion in 2015. Wow. Last year, 62 members of Congress signed legislation that would have forced disclosure of spending levels for specific agencies. The five most funded black budget agency are the Central Intelligent Agency, National Security Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospace Intelligence Program, and the General Defense Intelligence Program.

Spending for agencies is divided into four main categories: data collection, data analysis, management, facilities and support, and data processing and exploitation. While the CIA spends 11.5 billion a year on data collection, the NSA spends 2.5. Hi, NSA. The National Spy Agency also spends 1.6 billion a year on data processing and exploitation, 1.5 billion on data analysis, and a whopping 5.2 billion on management facilities and support. No, this is to spy on civilians.

NSA needs a as of 2013, there are estimated 107,000 [Music] employees in the intelligence community. Over 83,000 are full-time equivalent civilian employees. The NSA employs the most military personnel at 64% of its staff. Come on, troops. So, how do these numbers make our guest correspondents feel? I feel that that's a damn shame trying to infringe on our personal uh human rights.

that has made the policy. Get their act together. I'm about a solution. I see we have a big problem. Obama phone.

I think the Obama phone is a a way to keep track of people. I think we should uh come together and discuss how human rights are being taken. You can't let the government get that type of power. We don't do nothing now today to rectify everything, we're going to have we're going to have chaos. They're like uh tyrants.

Communist spired on each other. You know what I mean? Real American people, we don't spend on each other and make a stand against that cuz that's that's not you know that's not good. Before I go, it's important to note that some of these numbers are from 2013 and finding black budget facts is incredibly difficult with the NSA monitored and government supported Google. Disclaimer, these numbers might be out ofd or inaccurate. You know, because I want to wake up tomorrow.

Additionally, today's correspondents were paid for their time with homemade sack lunches. While it's important to keep America safe through surveillance measures, has the government taken our spending too far? Could funds be redirected to programs that improve low-income and minority communities? Does the government intentionally suppress the African-American community? When the government spends $54 billion a year on surveillance measures, but the Department of Education allows an African-American graduation rate of 66%. It's safe to say that we have a culture in crisis. You know, why is it that high schools in South Central don't even offer the classes that kids need to get into college? Oh, that's right. Because the prison system will profit off it.

It's unacceptable to spy on citizens and drone bomb children while leaving veterans in the streets. Why? Why aren't people speaking out about this? Why are we so desensitized with the rap, celebrity, entertainment culture, you know, that these issues aren't brought to light? Why is this not daily conversation? Our priorities are backwards. If we're expected to be the leaders of tomorrow, we need to be discussing the issues of today. This is Best Buyers signing off. And remember, it's your generation and you're empowered.

[Applause] [Music]