Defense Contractors Should Really Start Investing in Democrats
A really good piece from The Washington Post yesterday points out that a ton of wasteful defense spending comes from congressional Democrats.
“„It was Democrats who stuffed an estimated $524 million in defense earmarks that the Pentagon did not request into the 2008 appropriations bill, about $220 million more than Republicans did, according to an independent estimate. Of the 44 senators who implored Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in January to build more F-22 Raptors — a fighter conceived during the Cold War that senior Pentagon officials say is not suited to probable 21st-century conflicts — most were Democrats.
There are few true certainties in this world, but one that comes close is that the defense lobby is going to pour a ton of money into Democratic and liberal members of Congress in order to stanch the anticipated bleeding from President Obama’s prospective procurement and acquisition reforms.
The piece points out how a key ally for a bunch of dubious programs — the F-22 fighter jet, the DDG-1000 destroyer — is Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the liberal icon who sits on the Armed Services Committee. Now would definitely be the time to watch which Democrats are taking defense industry money.
