Congressional Democrats Are Raking in Huge Donations from War Profiteers
A look at the numbers reveals that congressional Democrats who voted for Trump’s defense budget last week accepted four times as much war industry cash in the House and six times as much in the Senate as those who voted against. To stop the war machine from sucking up resources that could be used on social programs, we need to confront those Democrats happy to rake in cash from war profiteers.
Lockheed Martin F-35A “Joint Strike Fighter.” (Picryl)
Congress chose to bail out military contractors over people earlier this month by passing the final military budget of the Trump administration with veto-proof majorities in both chambers. The House approved the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on December 8, 335 to 78 (with one “present” vote). The Senate followed suit three days later, passing the $740.5 billion Pentagon budget bill, 84 to 13 with three Senators abstaining.
Considering that about half of the Pentagon’s budget is awarded to the private sector through contracts, the NDAA effectively gives war corporations like Lockheed Martin another round of direct cash assistance, while Congress continues to defer providing desperately needed aid to ordinary Americans.
What explains Congress’s preference for buying weapons over delivering basic support during a pandemic? It’s not public opinion, especially as it relates to Democrats’ votes. Among congressional Democrats, 84 percent of House members and 87 percent of senators ignored the policy preferences of their base.
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