Defense Contractors
High on the Hog
The protege of Rep. John Murtha, one of the biggest earmarkers in Congress, appears to know his way around a kitchen.
March 30, 2009 | Read More
Turn, Turn, Turn: The Revolving Door Spins
Will a single senator dare to oppose yet another Washington retread trying to walk back through the revolving door between government and big business?
January 16, 2009 | Read More
Obama Reality Check–Pentagon Revolving Door Edition
Moving from the Pentagon to a major arms manufacturer and back again. It’s so easy!
January 7, 2009 | Read More
Paring The Pentagon
Defense contractors are the kings of pay-to-play politics. That’s why the Pentagon won’t face the budget axe–or even Obama’s famous “scalpel”–anytime soon.
January 7, 2009 | Read More
Diane Feinstein: Yet More No-Change Change
First Hillary Clinton got to run our foreign policy. Now Diane Feinstein gets to oversee our intelligence agencies. This is change?
December 16, 2008 | Read More
Obama Reality Check - Pentagon Waste Edition
Obama says he’ll go line-by-line to cut federal spending. He could start by killing a $65 billion Pentagon boondoggle. But he’ll have to beat back bought-off members of Congress to do it.
December 11, 2008 | Read More
Outsourcing Our Economy
A spoof column announces that we are officially outsourcing economics policy to Asia. It’s a funny idea, but disturbingly close to reality.
December 8, 2008 | Read More
Where’s Our Harry Truman?
During World War II, then Senator Truman waged a nonstop battle against defense contracting fraud and saved the country $15 billion (in 1940s dollars). In honor of Veteran’s Day, we thought we’d ask: are there any Harry Trumans in Congress fighting today’s war profiteers?
November 11, 2008 | Read More
Pigs Fly? The Pentagon Cuts A Bloated Program
Last week, something truly bizarre happened in Washington. The Department of Defense actually trimmed a wasteful military contract. But this is the Pentagon we’re talking about. Weapons systems never die. They just get re-bid. And defense contractors like Boeing are already lining up.
October 20, 2008 | Read More
Really Support the Troops - Give Them a Raise!
Our soldiers risk their lives and spend years away from their families. Yet they earn a pittance. Meanwhile, private contractors and mercenaries take home fat, taxpayer-funded salaries. This is disgraceful. No private contractor in a war zone should make more than our troops. Period.
If the Pentagon and other government agencies like the State Department insist on hiring private companies to do work that our soldiers used to do themselves, congress should pass laws mandating that our GI’s earn at least as much, or, better yet, more than the private contractors working in the same overseas area.
August 28, 2008 | Read More
